Wondering What God's Will Is For Your Life?

My friend Jared has some some thoughts.

Assuming that we are praying for God's guidance in making decisions, and assuming He has not given us a clear answer, I offered a checklist for making decisions:

1. Is an option a sin?
2. Is an option unwise or conducive to sin?
3. Has God clearly told me not to choose a particular option? (If you're not sure, then He hasn't.)
4. If your answers are "no" to all three, do what you want.

It's that simple. And yet it's that difficult, because it requires that we trust God as we walk into the unknown and the potentially unsafe.
We have this mixed up notion that if we make a choice and it blows up in our face, then it must not have been God's will. Where we get the idea that God never wants us to endure hardship or pain I don't know, but it has seriously messed with our concept of faith.