Have you ever asked God what to do when you had already decided what you wanted?
That’s the tension at the center of Jeremiah 42. After years of warning, Jerusalem had fallen, the temple had been destroyed, and the small group of people left behind was afraid of what might happen next. They went to Jeremiah asking God for direction and promised they would obey whatever He said.
The problem was, their hearts were already pointed toward Egypt.
In Already Packed, Luke Reelfs walked through three lies that can quietly shape our decisions and keep us from experiencing God’s best. The story of Judah is an invitation to look honestly at whether we really want God to lead us, or whether we simply want Him to agree with the direction we’ve already chosen.
Lie One: The Sooner, the Better
After the people asked Jeremiah to hear from God, they had to wait. Jeremiah 42:7 tells us that God’s answer came ten days later.
Ten days may not sound like a long time, but for people who were afraid for their lives, every day mattered. Their leader had been murdered, they were worried Babylon would return, and Egypt looked like the safest option. They wanted an answer quickly because fear was telling them they needed to move.
But the waiting had a purpose.
Sometimes slowing down gives our emotions time to settle enough for us to actually hear from God. When life feels urgent, it’s easy to mistake pressure for direction. We can start believing that because we need an answer quickly, God should give us one quickly too.
Luke challenged us to consider whether God is actually quiet or whether our lives have simply become too loud. Busyness, fear, constant input, and the pressure to make a decision can leave very little room to listen.
Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is slow down long enough to let God lead.
Lie Two: My Way Is Best
When God finally answered, His direction was clear. He told the people to stay where they were and promised to protect and establish them there.
But staying required trust. Egypt looked safer. It made more sense to them. They could see why leaving was a good idea, while staying required them to believe that God knew something they didn’t.
That’s often where our own struggle begins. We ask God for direction, but we already have a version of the answer we hope He gives us. If His direction matches ours, we call it confirmation. If it doesn’t, we can be tempted to keep moving and ask Him to bless the plan anyway.
Luke shared about taking a job in Texas during a season when he knew it wasn’t where God was leading him. Looking back, he could see the difference between asking God to direct his life and simply choosing the direction he wanted. God leads us, but He doesn’t force us to follow. That’s why knowing His Word matters so much. Scripture gives us story after story of what happens when people trust God and what happens when they insist on going their own way.
The more we know His Word, the easier it becomes to recognize His direction.
Lie Three: Life Was Better Before
The people eventually went to Egypt, despite what God had told them. By Jeremiah 44, they were looking back at their past and deciding that life had been better when they were doing things their own way. They pointed to earlier seasons of comfort as evidence that their old way must have been working.
But they were reading their circumstances incorrectly.
They saw hardship and assumed God had failed them. Jeremiah saw a people experiencing the consequences of repeatedly walking away from Him. We can fall into the same pattern. A difficult season can make the past look better than it really was. We remember what felt comfortable while forgetting what God was trying to free us from. We can even begin to judge God’s faithfulness based entirely on whether life currently feels easy.
That’s why Luke encouraged us to “go vertical.” Instead of only looking at a situation through the lens of our experience, we bring it back to God and ask what He may be doing in us through it.
Hardship does not automatically mean God has abandoned us. Sometimes He is building something in us that we can’t see yet.
Are You Asking God, or Asking Him to Agree?
The people in Jeremiah 42 said all the right things. They asked for direction. They promised obedience. They sounded surrendered.
But they were already packed.
That’s the question this story leaves us with. Is there an area where we’re asking God to lead while quietly hoping He’ll choose the direction we already want? Maybe the struggle is timing. You want the answer now, and waiting feels unbearable. Maybe you already know the direction you prefer and you’re having a hard time releasing it. Or maybe a difficult season has made you wonder whether following God was really worth it.
Whatever it is, surrender starts with honesty.
Slow down enough to hear Him. Stay close to His Word. And before asking God to bless the direction you’ve already chosen, give Him permission to change it. God’s best may not always be the fastest option, the easiest option, or the one you would have picked for yourself.
But if He is leading, you can trust where He takes you.
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