Knowing God's Will For Your Life - Part #1

Click below to access the following articles in the series. 
Part #2
Part #3
Part #4
Part #5 
   The game of LIFE is a classic.  Complete with jobs, money, cute little cars, and pink and blue stick figures, it provides many long hours of fun.  Although just a game, it does remind us how life is a journey.  There will be a time when we will start to feel like that little stick figure in the car; the unknown future laid out before us with many important decisions that will impact the rest of our lives.  Life isn't just a game, it is an unfolding reality.
     While every day is marked by little decisions that we make here and there, in each of our lives there will
be a time when we arrive at a crossroad.  The decision we make will impact the direction we travel.  Upon coming to this point, some people just travel down the path that seems best for them, but for those of us who have been redeemed by Christ, we have a far greater factor that impacts the decisions we make. What is God's will? As a senior in high school, I stand at a crossroad.  Maybe your are standing in the same place in your life, unsure of what to do next.  How do we know what God's will is for our lives?
      God has placed several wise people in my life who have helped me find the answer to this question and I would like to share their wisdom with you over the next few weeks.  While we will not all come the the same conclusion, the universal principles of seeking God's will and knowing it is clearly laid out in scripture.  So let's start this week by getting ourselves ready for a road trip!

Making Sure Everything Is Ready to Go:
     Taking a big trip anywhere requires a lot of work, especially when you have a "larger than normal" family:)  Before we leave we must make sure the van is in working order and safe to drive. In the same way, let us pull over a moment and take inventory of our own lives to make sure everything is in working order before we head off again on the pilgrimage of life. 

Who's In Control?

...You are not your own, for you were bought with a price...

1 Corinthians 6:19-20  

     I don't know about you, but I like to be in control.  There is security in thinking that we can dictate our own lives.  However, when Christ calls us, he calls us to surrender to His plan; His plan for our salvation, our lives, eternity.  We are no longer the leaders, we are the followers.  Each one of us must make the decision to submit to God's place of authority in our lives.  After all, it is hard for God to direct us if we are tightly controlling the 'steering wheel' or our life.  We must give Him the steering wheel and take the back seat, allowing Him to guide and direct us.  We must surrender our control so we can accept His.

     However the truth is that most of us have not fully surrendered our lives to Him.  Why?  In the back of our mind there is a fear, an irrational fear.  It's the fear that God will ruin our lives, that God will make us miserable, that God's plans can't really be better than ours.  While we dream of riding off in a pink, rose covered carriage with the sign "Happily Ever After" diligently tied with bows to the back, we are convinced that if we give God total control of our lives He for sure leave us as unmarried old maids.  But is that the character of our God?

You are good and do good.

Psalm 119:68

~

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Psalm 32:8

We can trust our God!!!! We can hold to His promises knowing that He is a good God who loves and cares for His children.  He does not want us to live in a miserable existence, but rather a glorious existence in which we are fully satisfied in Him because we are fully surrendered to Him.  He has control and in Him we find our rest, our confidence, our peace.

Windshield Clear

Follow Christ!

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth...

Ecclesiastes 12:1

     This summer I read the book of Ecclesiastes.  It hit me like a fast ball going 90 miles an hour.  In our youth how often we forget that life is short and filled with many vanities.  One day even the most renowned scientists, doctors, political leaders and celebrities will be forgotten.  Everything that we invest our lives in on this earth will simply turn to ash and be no more because it is temporal.  But God has called us to eternal things. Several hundred years latter Paul gives a similar exhortation to live for the things of eternity when he says:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, 

where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that 

are above, not on things that are on earth.

Colossians 3:1-2

      Fame and fortune will one day pass away, but the things above, they are eternal.  May our lives reflect a desire to invest our time, talents and abilities for the purpose of storing up treasure in heaven. When we live for the here and now our life is void of purpose and lacks clarity. But when we live for Christ, oh the eternal riches that we discover. (Colossians 2:3)

~

All to Jesus I surrender,

All to Him I freely give.

We are burning What?

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died 

for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer 

live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

     Motivation is a key component of our lives.  Igniting passion and purpose, it is the catalyst that drives us to action.  The fruit of our lives will often be in direct correlation to our motivation.  Because of this, it is important that we evaluate our motives.

     Messages consisting of "follow your dreams" and "you can be whatever you want to be",  stem from a motivation to make self great.  But the goal of the Christian life?  To make God great.  To glorify Him by living for Him alone!  Pray that God would allow a passion for His glory to be the fuel that motivates you rather than desire for your own personal greatness.  

~

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow 

strangely dim

In the Light of His glory and grace

Alignment Completed
     Without an alinement, the road ahead will be filled with many course corrections or maybe even a complete veering off of the path.  However, God alone can align our will to His.  Let us pray that He will.  May our hearts echo the prayer of Christ, who, although He would suffer greatly,  surrendered himself completely to the will of the Father.

...not my will, but yours, be done...

Luke 22:42

~

Take my will, and make it Thine;
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart; it is Thine own;
It shall be Thy royal throne.

From, Take My Life and Let It Be