I am not even going to BEGIN to pretend that I wrote what you are about to read. My wonderful friend, Carmen, shared a blog post with me that blew me away. If you're like me, you are wondering what in the world to do with your life. Most of the time, I have no idea what God wills for me to do in my life or where He wants me to go. I struggle with big decisions and often wonder why, if I am trying to do what the Lord wants me to do, He doesn't make His plans clear and easy to follow.
Below is a passage from today's blog post by Steven Furtick, who is a pastor at Elevation Church. It is amazing, totally blew me away. To see his blog, go to www.stevenfurtick.com. I hope this helps those of you that are struggling with this like I am.
Steven Furtick: February 16, 2011
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.
Proverbs 25:2
Proverbs 25:2
There’s a reason God’s will in specific situations is so difficult to know sometimes. Why it can be so hard to know what God wants you to do.
Who to date.
Where to go to college.
Who to marry.
Where to move.
What job to take.
Where to go to college.
Who to marry.
Where to move.
What job to take.
It’s not because you’re not praying. You’re probably praying a lot. It’s not because you don’t want to know His will. Many of you really do. According to this verse, it’s because God conceals.
But why? After all, that seems counterintuitive to God’s purposes and using you in them.
The reason isn’t because God doesn’t want you to know His will. He wants you to know it more than you want to know it. It’s because God wants something more for you than that.
Him.
God’s not up in heaven hiding His will hoping you’ll never be able to find it. But he does play hide and seek. Not because He doesn’t want us to find His will but because He wants us to find Him. If He put it out in plain view, we would seek His will instead of seeking Him. That’s why he conceals it. That’s why it’s so hard.
God’s not trying to make His will plain. His will isn’t the main objective. He is the main objective. He wants you to discover Him most of all.
God isn’t the shortcut to your best life. He is your best life.
God doesn’t want to give you the guide for your life. He wants to be your Guide.
God doesn’t want to give you the guide for your life. He wants to be your Guide.
The scariest possibility for your life isn’t getting God’s will wrong. It’s getting God’s will right but barely coming to know God in the process.
You could love the right woman but lose your first love.
You could find the right career but then make it your god.
You could find the right career but then make it your god.
That’s why He doesn’t just write His will for you in the clouds. At the end of the process He wants you to know something far greater than what you should do with your life or what you should do next.
He wants you to know who He is.
To accompany this is one more post by him.
Steven Furtick: December 2, 2010
Everyone desires to be in God’s will. Sometimes we even talk about wanting to be in the perfect will of God.
But God’s perfect will might not look like what you think it should. We need to clear up what we mean by perfect. Otherwise we could completely miss out on God’s will altogether because we’ll be too busy chasing daydreams.
Our idea of perfect is perfect to us.
A perfect day to you might mean everything is going the way you think it should go.
A perfect marriage to you might be one that’s easy and stress-free.
A perfect job to you might be one where you’re high on the leadership pyramid and banking loads of cash.
Those aren’t bad things, but they’re not necessarily perfect to God. That matters because what’s perfect to God is perfect for us. God’s will for you is to become everything He dreamed you to be so that you might glorify Him the way He deserves to be. And that doesn’t necessarily happen through easy circumstances or perfect conditions.
God’s will doesn’t have to be perfect to me to be perfect for me.
If you need proof of this, just take a brief glance at the Bible:
God’s will for Job wasn’t perfect to him. He lost everything. But it was perfect for him. It brought him to a whole new level of faith and positioned him for a greater blessing later in his life.
God’s will for Joseph wasn’t perfect to him. He landed in slavery and prison for over a decade. But it was perfect for him. Through him, God saved his family and an entire nation.
God’s will for Paul probably didn’t seem perfect to a lot of people. Few men have ever suffered so much for the gospel. But it was perfect for him. Few men have ever spread the gospel so vastly in their lifetime.
God’s will for Jesus didn’t seem perfect to his disciples. In the garden of Gethsemane, even He didn’t want it. But it was perfect for him. He defeated and humiliated sin on the cross. Then conquered death in the resurrection. And thereby provided salvation to the whole world.
God’s will for you might not always seem perfect to you. But trust me, His will is perfect for you.
The job you hate right now might not seem perfect to you. But through it God is perfectly developing your character, patience, and faithfulness.
That relationship you just lost might not seem like God’s perfect will to you. But the person God is clearing space for and has been preparing you for your entire life is perfect for you.
The disease you’re battling right now might not seem perfect to you. But God could use your pain as a platform for the gospel to reach countless people. And He’s putting you in the perfect position to comfort others.
That doesn’t make it easy. But it does make it meaningful. Purposeful. Worth it.
It makes it perfect for you.
But God’s perfect will might not look like what you think it should. We need to clear up what we mean by perfect. Otherwise we could completely miss out on God’s will altogether because we’ll be too busy chasing daydreams.
Our idea of perfect is perfect to us.
A perfect day to you might mean everything is going the way you think it should go.
A perfect marriage to you might be one that’s easy and stress-free.
A perfect job to you might be one where you’re high on the leadership pyramid and banking loads of cash.
Those aren’t bad things, but they’re not necessarily perfect to God. That matters because what’s perfect to God is perfect for us. God’s will for you is to become everything He dreamed you to be so that you might glorify Him the way He deserves to be. And that doesn’t necessarily happen through easy circumstances or perfect conditions.
God’s will doesn’t have to be perfect to me to be perfect for me.
If you need proof of this, just take a brief glance at the Bible:
God’s will for Job wasn’t perfect to him. He lost everything. But it was perfect for him. It brought him to a whole new level of faith and positioned him for a greater blessing later in his life.
God’s will for Joseph wasn’t perfect to him. He landed in slavery and prison for over a decade. But it was perfect for him. Through him, God saved his family and an entire nation.
God’s will for Paul probably didn’t seem perfect to a lot of people. Few men have ever suffered so much for the gospel. But it was perfect for him. Few men have ever spread the gospel so vastly in their lifetime.
God’s will for Jesus didn’t seem perfect to his disciples. In the garden of Gethsemane, even He didn’t want it. But it was perfect for him. He defeated and humiliated sin on the cross. Then conquered death in the resurrection. And thereby provided salvation to the whole world.
God’s will for you might not always seem perfect to you. But trust me, His will is perfect for you.
The job you hate right now might not seem perfect to you. But through it God is perfectly developing your character, patience, and faithfulness.
That relationship you just lost might not seem like God’s perfect will to you. But the person God is clearing space for and has been preparing you for your entire life is perfect for you.
The disease you’re battling right now might not seem perfect to you. But God could use your pain as a platform for the gospel to reach countless people. And He’s putting you in the perfect position to comfort others.
That doesn’t make it easy. But it does make it meaningful. Purposeful. Worth it.
It makes it perfect for you.
I can't even begin to say how much this helped my perspective on God's will be seen with a clearer lens. I know it's one of those things that I wish I knew for sure. Definitely an encouragement right chere. Keep it up buddy :)
ReplyDelete