I love the way God works and the conversations that He brings into our lives to keep us thinking, growing, and stretching. My last blog post (here) was on determining the will of God. I shared some wisdom from George Müller that I had found to be sound advise and also very encouraging.
4 days ago, I shared this post on Facebook: "When talking about determining the Lord's will, George Müller said, 'I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.'"
This morning I was asked by someone who had read my blog post, "What about after you know the Lord's will?" The idea being that doing the Lord's will can often be very hard even once we know what it is.
Wow. What a great flow of thoughts and ideas coming at me.
I have two thoughts. First, for those who have already learned the Lord's will about a thing and who are struggling to do it...I think you actually have a harder job. Now you have this thing in your face that you know God wants you to do and you are terrified to do it. Now you have this fear because you are not 100% sold on doing it. Well, the only answer is that you have to come to a place where you will do it 100% or you need to just walk away. Doing a think half-heartedly is no way to do it at all. If you are not completely sold on following God's direction and leading you have the propensity to start well and either quit or, worse, starting doing things your way instead of God's way.
To those who have not yet learned what God's will is about a thing...rather than worry about the "not knowing" this is a great time to spend in the "what will I do" phase.
In other words: You have been praying to God and praying for Him to make things known to you, have you been confirming in your heart and to God that you are devoted to doing God's will...no matter what it is?
Example: you are young (or not so young) and you want to know what career God has for you. You want to pursue XYZ with a heart to serve and love on people as Christ has loved on you. Well, are you willing to move half-way around the world if God asks you to? OR, are you willing to stay in your home town and never leave if God asks you to? Are you willing to do it single? Married? With children or without? With your own biological children or with a more diverse family? Are you willing to be in full-time ministry? Are you willing to NOT be in full-time ministry? Are you willing to work with children? Or to work with adults?
And for everything you can think of that you ARE willing to do, you need to consider if you are willing to do something that is completely different? Willing to work in the inner-city? Willing to work in a rich neighborhood with prep-school students? Willing to work with the homeless? Willing to work with those who never have a want unsatisfied?
Why Nate? Why do I need to be so drastic? Does God hate me and want me to be miserable??
I'm glad you asked! :o) The answer is a resounding NO! In fact, God DOES love you. In fact, He loves you so much that He will not make you settle for your best. Not when He can have you do what He wants and what is His best for you.
Clarification: God's best will not be sunshine and roses. There are a million reasons to believe this with the principle reason being THE BIBLE! A life devoted to God is not about how happy YOU can be. it is about how much glory can be given to God because of your life. (Galatians 1:20).
Clarification: If God's strength is perfected in our weakness, then God can best use us while being glorified when we are not in our best element. Maybe we are uncomfortable with the people we have to work with. Maybe we work with people we love, but we have to do something we aren't good at. If everything about our life/ministry are things that we are good at and comfortable with, then where is the glory for God?
This was more rant than I expected. To wrap-up, what is SO important for people seeking to know God's will is for them to take that time of waiting to make sure they are, in their hearts and minds, prepared to do God's will no matter what it is. It may be EXACTLY what you've been wanting and God may truly bless you. ...but it also might not be and your heart of willingness will help to ensure that you are giving glory to God in your strengths as well as in your weaknesses. It helps keep the focus on God and not on ourselves.
To God be the glory.
4 days ago, I shared this post on Facebook: "When talking about determining the Lord's will, George Müller said, 'I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.'"
This morning I was asked by someone who had read my blog post, "What about after you know the Lord's will?" The idea being that doing the Lord's will can often be very hard even once we know what it is.
Wow. What a great flow of thoughts and ideas coming at me.
I have two thoughts. First, for those who have already learned the Lord's will about a thing and who are struggling to do it...I think you actually have a harder job. Now you have this thing in your face that you know God wants you to do and you are terrified to do it. Now you have this fear because you are not 100% sold on doing it. Well, the only answer is that you have to come to a place where you will do it 100% or you need to just walk away. Doing a think half-heartedly is no way to do it at all. If you are not completely sold on following God's direction and leading you have the propensity to start well and either quit or, worse, starting doing things your way instead of God's way.
To those who have not yet learned what God's will is about a thing...rather than worry about the "not knowing" this is a great time to spend in the "what will I do" phase.
In other words: You have been praying to God and praying for Him to make things known to you, have you been confirming in your heart and to God that you are devoted to doing God's will...no matter what it is?
Example: you are young (or not so young) and you want to know what career God has for you. You want to pursue XYZ with a heart to serve and love on people as Christ has loved on you. Well, are you willing to move half-way around the world if God asks you to? OR, are you willing to stay in your home town and never leave if God asks you to? Are you willing to do it single? Married? With children or without? With your own biological children or with a more diverse family? Are you willing to be in full-time ministry? Are you willing to NOT be in full-time ministry? Are you willing to work with children? Or to work with adults?
And for everything you can think of that you ARE willing to do, you need to consider if you are willing to do something that is completely different? Willing to work in the inner-city? Willing to work in a rich neighborhood with prep-school students? Willing to work with the homeless? Willing to work with those who never have a want unsatisfied?
Why Nate? Why do I need to be so drastic? Does God hate me and want me to be miserable??
I'm glad you asked! :o) The answer is a resounding NO! In fact, God DOES love you. In fact, He loves you so much that He will not make you settle for your best. Not when He can have you do what He wants and what is His best for you.
Clarification: God's best will not be sunshine and roses. There are a million reasons to believe this with the principle reason being THE BIBLE! A life devoted to God is not about how happy YOU can be. it is about how much glory can be given to God because of your life. (Galatians 1:20).
Clarification: If God's strength is perfected in our weakness, then God can best use us while being glorified when we are not in our best element. Maybe we are uncomfortable with the people we have to work with. Maybe we work with people we love, but we have to do something we aren't good at. If everything about our life/ministry are things that we are good at and comfortable with, then where is the glory for God?
This was more rant than I expected. To wrap-up, what is SO important for people seeking to know God's will is for them to take that time of waiting to make sure they are, in their hearts and minds, prepared to do God's will no matter what it is. It may be EXACTLY what you've been wanting and God may truly bless you. ...but it also might not be and your heart of willingness will help to ensure that you are giving glory to God in your strengths as well as in your weaknesses. It helps keep the focus on God and not on ourselves.
To God be the glory.
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