Does God have my entire life planned out?

Freedom can be attractive. A child can long for the day when he chooses his own bedtime—parents making rules can seem like the ultimate in oppression.

But freedom can also be scary. A college graduate may wonder whether she should stay unemployed and wait for the perfect job or take what’s available and start paying off loans. “Why can’t someone just tell me what to do?”

Where are you in life right now? Is freedom attractive, or is freedom scary?

Perhaps the bigger question is, “Do you actually have freedom?”

God’s plan for the Jewish exiles

More than 2,700 years ago, God told his people, “I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

God had plans. Does that mean there was no freedom? Has God predetermined everything we will do?

In 597 B.C., many Jews from Judah were exiled to Babylon. God’s people had drifted from his truth, and now there were consequences. Jeremiah wrote a letter from Judah to Babylon, encouraging his fellow believers not to give up. The total time away from home would be 70 years, but then they would go back (Jeremiah 29:10).

Seventy years—that can feel like forever. To overcome hopelessness, Jeremiah told the people that God had a plan. There was hope. There was a future.

God’s plan was a big one. The Jews in Babylon had to get back to Judah because a Savior had to be born in the land of Judah.

God had promises to keep! God’s plan was going to happen.

God’s gift of free choices

Does that mean that every decision made by Christians today has already been planned out by God? In reality, do we have no freedom?

The fact that we believe that Jesus is our Savior has nothing to do with human freedom. We were spiritually dead, and the dead cannot make themselves live. Our status as children of God is a complete gift, something God graciously determined to make happen before the creation of the world. We joyfully confess that God purposefully planned elements of history, including our personal salvation, before they happened. It wasn’t just that he knew they would happen. Rather, he determined that those things would occur.

But is that true of everything that happens in our lives? Was that true of everything that happened in the lives of the Jewish exiles in Babylon?

God knew his plans, and he knew the future was bright. But that didn’t mean that the Jews in Babylon had no freedom. Imagine a Jewish exile on a sunny Sunday morning deciding whether to eat one or two pieces of bread. He would not need to think, What if I do the wrong thing? What if God planned that I eat two pieces, but I end up eating only one?

It wasn’t wrong to eat one, and it wasn’t wrong to eat two. Neither option was inconsistent with God’s revealed will. Such a decision was a free choice.

Are you facing a decision like that? Should you ask the girl out on a date or not? Should you wait for a job that matches your degree or find a job immediately? Should you buy a new house or stay where you are living?

God’s Word does have something to say about those things. Spiritual qualities are central in a spouse, caring for one’s physical needs is a responsibility, and money is a gift of God to be used to his glory.

But such principles don’t always settle the issue.

When you’re facing a decision like that, where God’s revealed will does not categorically make the call, have you ever tortured yourself by asking, “What would God want me to do?”

Torturing myself? But isn’t it humble and obedient to ask what God would want me to do?

Yes, it is good to ask yourself what God wants you to do. When the choice is between cheating on a test or being honest and potentially getting a lower grade, God has told you what to do. When the choice is between selfishly grabbing for the biggest piece of cake or thinking first about the people around you, God has told you what to do. When the choice is between compromising God’s truth and keeping a friend or staying true to God’s Word and risking rejection, you know precisely what God wants you to do.

It is not wrong to care about what God wants you to do. But sometimes what God wants you to do is to feel free to make either choice.

This doesn’t mean you don’t reflect on your motives. The choice may be free, but your attitude may be sinful. This doesn’t mean you don’t seek perspective from others. Their wise advice may lean you in one direction or another. This doesn’t mean you do not go to the Lord in prayer, asking that he help you make this decision in a godly way.

But in the end, if the choice is truly free, don’t look for a special sign or get frustrated by the fact that you have to make the call. If the choice is truly free, know that you can make your decision and be at peace!

God’s plan for you

Know too that making such a decision doesn’t mean that God is suddenly not in control. “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21).

Making such a decision doesn’t imply that you no longer depend on God’s blessing. “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15). Making such a decision does not mean that God’s promises suddenly disappear. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

You are not taking control of your future by making a free decision. You are living out your humble trust in the Lord, knowing that God’s power and love remain your peace.

God does have plans for you. Part of his plan is to bless you with the privilege of making choices to his glory. Some of those choices are the result of knowing that there is only one godly course of action. Other choices are truly free. Do not fear free choices. Calmly make them, confident in the God who works everything for your good.

Ask a question at forwardinchrist.net/submit.

Author: Stephen Geiger
Volume 113, Number 03
Issue: March 2026

Making choices

Are you ready to make decisions? Here’s a plan:

• Search God’s Word for relevant guidance. Find out if this is a free decision or one for which God has given specific direction.
• Talk with Christian friends—gain the wisdom that comes from many counselors (Proverbs 15:22), embrace any divine principles they share, and shape your motives with their Christian encouragement.
• Go to the Lord in prayer. Ask him to help you make this decision in a way that honors him. Ask him to help you know everything you need to know, treasuring his promise to give you wisdom from his Word (James 1:5).

Then make the choice, entrusting your future to the Lord.