After working amidst high school and college students for
years, I have realized how deeply we all want to know the answer to one simple
question: What is God’s will for my life?
But it’s not just high school students asking for God’s will
about which college to go to. It’s also about single people of any age
wondering who God wants them to marry. It’s about graduates (and those who have been
in the work force for years) pondering what job God wants them to take and where in the world God wants them to live. It’s about older adults nearing retirement
trying to figure out what God wants for them next. Big life decisions don’t
stop after you choose your college major.
In fact, they just seem to grow in number and magnitude. J
I felt like I had a pretty good answer for anyone who asked
me about finding God’s will. As had been
shown to me, I directed people to some of the verses in the Bible that specifically
state what God’s will is
B.A.G.S.
Believe – John 6:40
Abstain – I Thessalonians
4:3
Give thanks – I Thessalonians
5:18
Submit & do good –
I Peter 2:13-15.
If we follow what God asks us to do in the simple things,
our hearts will be in the right place and we won’t miss the direction He wants
to lead us.
I still agree with what I would have said. But in these past few weeks, God has been
reminding me that I have much more to learn.
You see, here’s my issue.
I believe all of that. But if God
doesn’t show me on my time table…I start to stress out and worry. Whenever I think about any decision, I often
just say, “God, I really just want to do
what you want. If you show me clearly –
I’ll do it!”
The desire to do God’s will is not wrong. However, by asking God for neon signs in the sky
(yep, I did that…a few times J)
I have been skipping over the process and just asking for the product.
I want an answer without any transformation.
It has taken thoughts from Elisabeth Elliot, the story of Abraham,
Kevin DeYoung, and Rex Trogdon to remind me of the truth: God doesn’t want me to just ask questions
about His will; He wants me to KNOW Him. In knowing Him, I will become more like Him. And then His will will not be elusive.
So, in case you’re like me and need a reminder of the truth,
please allow me the privilege of sharing a little bit of what God has taught me
in the past few weeks. (Okay, maybe a
lot a bit. I’ve never been accused of
having too few words. J)
From Elisabeth Elliot
& Abraham
A few weeks ago, the world remembered the 60th
anniversary of the deaths of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Ed McCulley,
and Roger Youderian. They risked
everything to tell the Auca and Waodoni people of Ecuador about Jesus.
In commemoration of that event, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
re-aired a talk that Elisabeth Elliot (Jim’s wife) gave to a group of college
students about endurance. She asked
three main questions:
What do you live for?
How do you get it?
Is it worth it?
You should definitely listen to the whole talk if you have a
chance, to learn about the term “Yunga” and the A.U.G. degree Jim Elliot
desperately wanted to have. It’s a
convicting message.
Elisabeth used examples of men who considered knowing Christ
and obedience to Christ as a higher call than anything else. She spoke of her husband, Jim Elliot. She remembered Eric Liddell, the Olympic gold
medalist. And she also spoke of Abraham in
the Bible. She noted that Abraham was
asked by God to do a hard thing – to offer up his son, Isaac. Elisabeth points out that the Bible never
says, “Abraham struggled.” He just
rose early in the morning and did what God asked. As she stated:
“Sometimes ‘struggling’ is a nice word for postponed obedience.”
Abraham has come up many times since then in my personal
Bible study. Here are some of the things
that I’ve learned:
1.
Abraham was characterized by immediate obedience, whether or not he
fully understood.
a.
Genesis 12:
God asked Abraham to “leave your country, your people, and your father’s
household and go to the land I will show you.”
i.
Umm…where?
I would want a little more direction.
ii.
But verse 4 says, “So, Abram left…”
b.
Genesis 17:
God asked Abraham to circumcise the males in his household as a sign of
the covenant between them.
i.
Umm…ow?
There was no mistaking this command.
I might have wanted to postpone something painful like this.
ii.
But verse 23 says, “On that very day Abraham…circumcised
them, as God had told him.”
c.
Genesis 22:
God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son. His promised son. The one he had waited for.
i.
Umm...seriously?
After waiting YEARS for that promise to be fulfilled?
ii.
But verse 3 says, “Early the next morning,
Abraham got up and saddled his donkey…”
2.
The process
of obedience purified Abraham’s faith.
a.
Abraham wasn’t perfect. He messed up royally, like many people in the
Bible. But when God told him that He
would do something, Abraham believed. He
even believed that the sacrifice of his son would not stop God from fulfilling
His promises (Hebrews 11:17-19).
b.
A.W. Tozer had another take on this story in his
book, The Pursuit of God, “…God let the
suffering old man [Abraham] go through with it [sacrificing Isaac] up to the
point where he knew there would be no retreat, and then forbade him to lay a
hand on the boy. To the wondering
patriarch he now says in effect, ‘It’s alright Abraham. I never intended that you should actually
slay the lad. I only wanted to remove
him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that
existed in your love…’”
c.
God used tests to “sift” Abraham’s heart and
show Abraham what was most important.
Those tests helped him correct what was wrong in his loves. And after the test on the mountain, Abraham
wasn’t bitter at God. He was thankful,
and called the mountain “The Lord Will Provide.”
From Kevin DeYoung
A friend of mine (thanks, Jen!) lent me a book called Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. It’s great.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
- “Obsessing over the future is not how God wants us to live, because showing us the future is not God’s way. His way is to speak to us in the Scriptures and transform us by the renewing of our minds. His way is not a crystal ball. His way is wisdom…We should start looking to God – His character and His promises – and thereby have confidence to take risks for His name’s sake” (p. 41).
- “Wisdom is the difference between knowing a world-class biologist who can write your papers for you and studying under a world-class biologist so that you can write the kind of papers he would write. Too many of us want God to be the world-class scholar who will write our papers and live our lives for us, when God wants us to sit at His feet and read His word so that we can live a life in the image of His Son. God doesn’t tell us the future for this simple, yet profound reason: We become what we behold. God wants us to behold Him in His glory so that we can be transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). If God figured out everything for us, we wouldn’t need to focus on Him and learn to delight in His glory. God says, ‘I’m not giving you a crystal ball. I’m giving you my Word. Meditate on it; see Me in it; and become like Me” (p. 93-94).
From Rex Trogdon
And just yesterday, as I was biking at the gym, I read from
Rex Trogdon’s book, He Touched Me. It seemed to pull everything together I’d
been learning the past few weeks.
“Now, wait just a minute, you say. You mean
God’s will is more about how I live than where I live? That is right. God’s will guarantees us the best plan for
our lives:
- Eternally – Salvation (John 1:13, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, 2 Peter 3:9)
- Outwardly – Sanctification (1 Thess 4:3) and how to suffer – for doing good and not evil (1 Peter 3:17)
- Inwardly – Thanksgiving (1 Thess 5:16-18)
…Do you want to know
God’s will for your life? You’ll find it
in God’s word” (p.34-36).
Conclusion?
As I mentioned before, I will doubtless encounter the
question of “What is God’s will?” again in my life. I will either be asked for advice on it or
have to process through it myself in a decision.
But as I knew before, God has some very specific things in
His Word, the Bible, in which He asks me to be obedient.
And then, there are things He doesn’t address in His Word. Like…what college to go to, who to marry,
what job to have, and where to live.
For those “non-moral” decisions, God has reminded me that the
best thing I can do is spend time with Him.
Read His Word. Pray.
And as I become more like Him because I have spent so much
time “beholding Him”, I can step out and do something without second guessing
my every move. (and not end up like the fictional
Walter Houston. J)
Isn’t it refreshing to know that God’s will is not as
complicated as we make it?
Let’s just spend time with Him.
