The following was a blog I wrote 6 years ago today. It's amazing how things God has told you in the past can speak to you in the future. So I thought I'd share this with you. It speaks to a lot of what I'm going through and maybe it will speak to you too. What's funny, is that 6 years ago I hadn't met Joe yet. I would meet him a few weeks after I wrote this. To say that where I am right now and what I am doing is surprising would be a huge understatement. My life is completely 180 degrees different then when I wrote this blog. But the God I serve is still the same. In that, lies my comfort. :)
Life being what it is, there are always obstacles and trials coming at
us. We really have no control over this. What we do have control over
is how we respond to it. And as Christians, we are always trying to
make sense out of what we're going through. How we do this and why we
do this says a lot about who we are as people.
With the advent of
Facebook, it's so easy to see what our friends are going through and
how they are dealing with it. Status updates are filled with hope,
despair, and everything in between. It's not unusual to see someone
praise God for the definitive work He is about to do in their life and
the next day when that thing falls through, plunge into despair and
worry. This doesn't seem to be the way to go, now does it? Nor does it seem
to glorify God. As Christians, I don't feel we should be so up and down
all the time. I'm talking to myself too, as I have fallen into this trap
as well.
Matthew 6:25-34
"Therefore I tell
you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about
your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and
the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you
by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry
about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor
or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was
dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the
field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he
not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry,
saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we
wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly
Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Many of us have heard this a million times, and for good reason. I think the main point of this is seeking His kingdom first. It doesn't say that after awhile of seeking
you won't need to keep seeking. We will never reach a point where we
can stop seeking God. This is the danger we fall into when we have no
challenges or trials facing us... when we have more than enough money in
the bank and when we and everyone we know are all super healthy and
safe. We stop seeking. It seems to me that if we seek God we will
cease to worry. And seeking is something we do everyday.
Certainty
Seemingly the opposite of worry, right?
Not so much. Certainty of what our future holds and even what we
think God will do in certain respects can be just as dangerous as
uncertainty. Let me explain with these scriptures...
James 4:13-16
Now
listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that
city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do
not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a
mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you
ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or
that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone,
then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
I
can't tell you how many times I've heard Christians say "I'm going to
do this... I'm going to do that." Or "It's definitely God's will that I will go here
and do this or get this job or move to this place". And
you know, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I believe God does reveal
His will to us sometimes in a very clear way. But I think Christians
suffer from the pressure of knowing exactly what's going on all the time
in every situation. And sadly, this can lead to boasting about where
their life is going, taking pride in seemingly knowing all the details
as if this was brought about by their own works and righteousness. And
in their rush to feel like they have God's approval on everything, they
fall into the sin of presumption. We see others with what appears to be perfect
lives having everything figured out and we think, "I love God, I
want to do what He wants, so naturally I should have everything figured
out as well." We can have such a certainty about what God is or isn't
doing in our lives that when things start to go the opposite way of
what we thought, we exhaust ourselves at every turn telling God what
He ought to be doing at the moment. When at the end of the day, we are scared that what we thought was God, wasn't.
I've have been privy to this myself, and it comes down
to a pride issue. To open myself up to the possibility that God's plans
aren't necessarily my own all the time makes me face the fact that
maybe I'm not as wise in my own eyes as I think I am.
This
scripture tends to go against common Christian thought on knowing God's
will. The scripture in James that says "If it is the Lord's will, we
will do this or that..." What that verse is saying is that there is a
possibility that YOU don't know what the Lord's will is in every
situation and that you're just going to have to trust Him. It's saying
that sometimes His will cannot be known until the thing comes to pass. To think, we as Christians can live Godly lives and still be in the
dark about aspects of our life. That not knowing His will is not always a
byproduct of sin or faithlessness. But that sometimes God just wants to
see that we trust Him no matter what the situation is. And that some
of the trials you are going through that you blame on the enemy, is really
God working in your life. And by holding onto what you thought was God,
is really you fighting Him, and "kicking against the goads", so to
speak.
The reason that this can be dangerous is because a lot
of times when we are so sure of something, we stop bringing it before
God. We stop acknowledging Him in all our ways. That's how
"Certainty" is like "Worry". In both instances you stop acknowledging
God. And there is nothing the Father wants more, than
to talk to you every day. Too often we view prophecy and such as
fortune telling... hoping that the words that are spoken over us is the
destination and not the direction He is pointing us in. They are
guidelines and not a full picture of what we are to expect.
If
we prefaced our plans with "If the Lord wills..." life wouldn't seem
like such a roller coaster. By acknowledging God's right to do as He
pleases, we are more flexible when the unexpected shows up. And to be
sure, the unexpected will show up. Regardless, if you have no clue of what
God is doing in your life, or you feel like you have it all figured
out, there is a peace and rest that comes from relying on God daily to
work out the details. Do what you feel like He's telling you to do, but
also know that God can do what He wants, when He wants, and is not
obligated to tell you anything. He loves when we trust in Him, knowing
that He is always looking out for our best interests. Plus there is a
humility that is attractive to God when we acknowledge that we are not
in control. I'm not saying to give up on dreams that God has given you,
but leave yourself open to the fact that maybe it will come to pass at a
time and in a way that you are not privy to right now. Remember, God
let's us believe what we need to believe to get us where He wants us to
go. Be consistent in what you believe about God and who He is. That is
true faith.
