Bible Verses About Letting God Lead Your Life
95% of God’s plan for your life is already mapped out. Read John 14: 15-17 with us and other Bible verses about letting God lead your life.
The Famous Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11
I remember reading those words as a child in an inspirational prayer book. And the book worked because I did feel inspired. If someone were selling a book title Warm and Fuzzy Feel-Good Bible Verses About Letting God Lead Your Life, it could possibly just be “Jer 29:1” written on the inside. It does make you feel good to hear.
The first time I ever read those words I had been feeling terribly distraught about the torments of life and how bitter and painful it all was.
I think the boy I had a crush on didn’t know I existed or something along those lines.
But I remember feeling terribly alone, and when I randomly opened up the Bible verse of the day prayer book of inspirations, those words hit me like a warm, familiar hug.
God cared, and he cared about me and my little humdrum life.
“To give me a future with hope.”
God’s will for me was warm and fuzzy.
It was all going to be ok. All I had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride, right? After all, God is going to take care of the future, right?
Wrong.
But not wrong about God providing and watching over our future. Wrong about sitting back to enjoy the show.
Jeremiah 29:11 is one of those verses that everyone knows. It’s profoundly uplifting and inspiring. It’s plastered all over people’s Instagram bios and inked on the skin of silly young girls because they want a tattoo, but they want something MEANINGFUL. Silly girls, grow up.
I’m kidding, but only kind of. It’s been over a decade since I had that verse tattooed on my own back.
Jeremiah 29:11 is a beautiful verse, don’t get me wrong, but it’s been cherry-picked and taken out of context.
The Importance of the Whole Story
Growing up, I never read the bible cover to cover. That’s not something I say with pride. It’s pitiful, really. I tried multiple times, joined Bible studies, and mapped out reading plans, but my heart wasn’t in it at the time. But I was familiar with most of the bible because of my religious upbringing. I knew the overall story of the Bible, sure. But I didn’t know the verse that came right before Jeramiah 29:11.
Not too long ago, I was listening to a talk on YouTube, and after it was finished, the following video began to autoplay.
It was a talk by Scott Hahn speaking about his new book Catholics in Exile: Biblical Wisdom for the Journey Home.
I was enthralled. I’ll link the talk on YouTube below. It’s worth a listen.
Scott Hahn is a world-renowned name in the Catholic world, but I had never heard him speak before.
Scott Hahn spoke about what he calls “The Jeremiah Option.” He speaks on how people know the well-known 29:11, but what about the verses immediately before that?
Jeremiah 29:4-10
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.
Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage,
that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile,
and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
Do not let your prophets and your drivers who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream,
for it is a lie which they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them says the Lord.
For thus says the Lord:
When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”
No Lollygagging!
Those verses are very active. God Isn’t telling anyone to sit back and enjoy the show while they wait for God to provide for their futures.
God is giving them a list of things that need to be done in the meantime.
Reading it sounded a lot like God saying, “Don’t worry about the future, I’ll take care of you. You worry about right now; there are things that need to be done; get to work; I have long-term plans, and I want you to have long-term work.
Why is it so important to God that we be actively working while he is preparing our future? Couldn’t we just sit around while we wait for God’s plan to unfold before us?
Because God, in His nature is a creator. And we are his children.
Like Father, like son.. and daughters..
Get up and Look Busy
Growing up my dad instilled in us a work ethic and an understanding that if someone was working, we were all working. ‘Many hands make light work’ mentality, but for my Dad, it was more than that. It wasn’t so much that everyone split the work evenly; it was more for solidarity. If one of my siblings was the last one in the kitchen with a sink still half full of dinner dishes, I had permission to go. If I had done my assigned chores, I could leave to play or read or whatever else. I had the right. But we all knew the right thing to do was find something to do in the kitchen while the other kid finished the dishes.
My dad often would grab a dishcloth and dry the dishes out of the drying rack. “Why?” We’d all ask, Afterall if you just left them there, they would drip dry all on their own.
But I wasn’t so much the work itself. It was the intention behind the work.
I think my dad got his work ethic from his dad. My Grandpa was a World War II Veteran who came back home from Africa disabled with a purple heart to work three jobs to put food on the table for his family.
I never got the honor of meeting my grandfather; he passed away before my parents ever met, but from all the stories my dad tells, they don’t make them like that anymore. But from my grandfather, my own father had instilled in him an expectation that he passed on down to us. You don’t ever, ever sit around and wait for the work to get done for you.
Working is the Expectation, not the Exception
Our Heavenly Father is a creator; he’s a builder and a worker. The reason he told us to rest on the seventh day is because there is an expectation that we work on the other six days.
My own understanding is that hard times are just part of the package now. Thanks a lot, Adam and Eve.
Not really; if they hadn’t eaten the darn fruit, someone else would have come along and taken a bite. But regardless, work is part of the deal now.
So, how do you let go and let God lead your life while following the will of God as He instructed in Jeremiah 29?
Have faith.
Easier said than done, yes?
Faith is something I have always struggled with practicing in practical ways. I said I had faith in God’s will and God’s word, but when push came to shove, it often felt like standing in front of a semi-truck and saying, “If I believe, God will save me!” That felt stupid. Didn’t God equip us to make our own way in this world? To take care of ourselves here while we make our way to eternal life?
Yes and no.
The God of the Loaves and the Fish
God is a provider; He wants to provide for us. He is also a multiplier.
I often, in times of need, pray to God under a title I began using a few years ago;
Jesus Christ, God of the loaves and of the fish.
Matthew 14:13-21
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
“Bring them here to me,” he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
God, who could have done anything, who could have made a lavish feast of the fattened calf and all the decadent things that kings would have feasted on in those days. He could have had anything with a snap of His divine fingers. But He didn’t.
He asked that they give Him what they had.
And then He took it and multiplied it.
It’s hard to let go and give and trust God to give back what we need.
But the things God will do when we do!
I think a great example of this is tithing. It’s an act of faith to tithe.
Faith in Action
We live in a world that is so dependent on finances, and sometimes, between bills and buying groceries and everything in between, the checking account sometimes feels ‘like butter scraped over too much bread,’ as Bilbo Baggins would say. Some weeks, we need every penny.
But God is there saying, “Bring it here to me.” Like he did to the disciples with the loaves and the fish.
He doesn’t always make a fancy show of it; after all, He doesn’t want spoiled children. I can only speak for myself, but I become insufferable when I’ve been spoiled rotten, and that certainly wouldn’t bear much fruit.
You may not be eating caviar, but the good news is that you will have enough.
Jesus Christ, God of the loaves and of the fish.
If you are looking for specific bible verses about letting God lead your life, instructions on how to do that, or what that would even look like, I used to wonder the same thing. I sometimes still do, but something I heard years ago that set me on the right path in the best way was 95% of God’s plan for your life is already laid out for you.
95% of God’s plan for your life is exactly the same as His plan for everyone else’s.
The Ten Commandments
1. Follow His ten commandments. And no, I don’t mean as long as you don’t wield the ax in an actual murder, you can check that one off. No, find a real examination of conscience. The best one I have come across is Father Chad Ripperger’s which is included at the back of his book Deliverance Prayers for use by the Laity.
The 10 Commandments:
- Thou shall have no other gods before me.
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.
- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy.
- Honor your father and mother.
- Thou shalt not murder.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Thou shalt not steal.
- Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- Thou shall not covet your neighbor.
The Precepts of the Church
2. Follow the Precepts of the Church:
- Attendance at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation
- Confession of serious sin at least once a year
- Reception of Holy Communion at least once a year during the Easter season
- Observance of the days of fast and abstinence
- Providing for the needs of the Church
Works of Mercy
3. Practice the 7 Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy:
Corporal Works:
1. Feed the Hungry
2. Give Drink to the Thirsty
3. Clothe the Naked
4. Shelter the Homeless
5. Visit the Sick
6. Visit the Imprisoned
7. Bury the Dead
Spiritual Works
1. Admonish the Sinner
2. Instruct the Ignorant
3. Counsel the Doubtful
4. Bare Wrongs Patiently
5. Forgive Offenses Willingly
6. Comfort the Afflicted
7. Pray for the Living and the Dead
The quickest and surest way to our God, Christ Jesus, is simply by doing exactly what He told us to. The word of God doesn’t change over time.
There may be things that, by the power of The Holy Spirit, you are being called to do with your life; we all have our own path. But the first step is to love and follow Him with our whole hearts, minds, and souls. Some of the things listed above are no picnic, and there will be ones that are particularly heavy crosses for you. Give it to God as your burnt offering. Those places where we need to dig deep and let go of control and our own authority are where we find true happiness and a closer relationship with our Good Shepherd.
John 14:15-17
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor,
to be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees him nor knows him;
but you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be with you.”
If you are looking for the peace of God, perfect peace that only comes about from the hands of God and leads to the Promised Land, the Kingdom of God;
Keep His commandments.
Are there really any better Bible verses about letting God lead your life than verses where He specifically tells you how you can follow his path for you to Heaven? He gave us a blueprint way back in Exodus.
Though you can look around the Bible for specific favorite Bible verses that calm anxious thoughts, the best thing you can do is read the Bible cover to cover. God’s way, His roadmap for us to Heaven, is a much more straightforward cover-to-cover than taken out of context with a collection of Bible verses.
But if you are going to cherry pick a little, I might recommend Jeremiah 29:4-10, Matthew 14:13-21, and John 14: 15-17 as some good ones?
AMDG
Emma Williams
Read more in Domestic Monastery
Listen to Scott Hahn’s talk on “The Jeremiah Option” from his book Catholics in Exile here.
