There's nothing quite like talking God over a freshly ground cup of coffee. That in a sentence describes the community group I am a part of. Last night we talked about Lost, 24, life and discovering God's Will. What a great combo! Just wait for the post on how we can see signs of God in Lost and 24. :)
Through life, I have always been impressed by people who constantly talk about something being God's will. There have been many times when I wished I could have been as confident as some of them. "How can they be so sure," I would ask. I have learned that they may not always have the confidence they appear to have, but they do have faith. And their statement, "This is God's will for my life," is more of a statement of faith than fact. That is, they have sought God's direction and this seems to be the compass for their lives.
One resource that I have found extremely helpful in discovering God's will is the book Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. If you read nothing else this year, read this one. If you are wrestling with questions of God's purpose for your life then this book will help. Here's the gist:
Big Idea: God is at work in the world around us, always!
So God's will is not like this: God is waiting around for us to get on board with His purpose for our lives, otherwise He can not do anything.
Rather, God is working around us and when we see Him at work THAT is our call to join Him. There are some things that help confirm whether or not we are seeing God at work and He is calling us:
- The Bible
- Prayer
- Circumstances
- The Church
So, if you are wresting with whether or not something is God's direction for your life, view it through the lens of these 4 questions:
1. Does the Bible say it is wrong?
2. Am I hearing anything in prayer?
3. Do circumstances in my life seem to point in this direction?
4. Do the people in my church, community group, ministry team, that is the people who I am doing life with, agree that this is a "God direction."
In the end, these questions can help but to follow Christ is always a step of faith. Everything may not be as crystal clear as you want it, but you can have a measure of confidence that will keep you moving in the right direction.
And yes, I was going for the longest post...
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2 comments:
What about Jesus telling us to go and make disciples? Doesn't that include me because I am a Christ-follower? If we all sit back and say...Ohh, God is going to use someone else to witness and get the job...who is actually doing the job?
Certainly making disciples is a part of God's general will and his specific will. He wants all followers to be in the business of evangelism and some part of our calling will involve doing just that. God's call isn't to sit back and do nothing. That's not what I meant by relax. I meant relax in an attitude of "if I don't do it, it won't get done" (a Martha attitude) which is essentially being motivated by guilt AND saying it is all about me. Instead, be motivated by the awesome fact that God wants to use us and we can actually make a difference. If you say, "someone else will do it, so I won't" then you are not really following God's call. But let's face it, we probably miss opportunities all the time to be used by God. Just because we missed them does not mean someone is lost forever because we missed it. God is indeed already using someone else. When we recognize a missed opportunity, if we can "make up for it" then we certainly should because we recognize we missed it. If we can't make it up, then we should let God be God and look for the next opportunity.
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