I was listening to a message by Francis Chan called, "Passionately Loving God in a Lukewarm Church," and he talked about his prayers for his church- that they would know God's will for their lives.
Then he stopped and asked, "Do the people in my church even WANT to know the will of God?"
I ask myself that same question all the time. If you ask most of the people in my church if they would like to know the will of God, they would eagerly say, "Yes!" I want to say, "Really? Do you REALLY want to know the will of God for your life?"
I would go on, "Do you REALLY want to know what God would do with you, where He would send you, how you would live, if God had complete control over your time, schedule, energy, etc? Isn't there a small part of you that says, 'Well, I really DON'T want to know. Can't I just be a good person and live my life and die and stand before God and tell Him, 'I just didn't know what You wanted me to do!'
Honestly, Christians, how many of us truly want to know God's will? How many of us want to know what time in the morning He wants us to get up, possibly to spend uninterrupted time in prayer, fasting, or study? How many of us truly want to know how God would spend our paycheck? How many of us truly want to know what profession God would send us into, how many children God would have us adopt, where He would have us live, and how He would have us treat the people we meet today?
All of a sudden, God's will doesn't look all that attractive.
At least, it doesn't look attractive to people who don't have the key element that the Christian faith is built on. The key element that many Christian lack, yet I don't believe you can truly be a Christian without it.
That key element is trust.
When the Christian has the key element of trust in God as his or her foundation, all of a sudden God's will looks like the greatest thing in the world. If you trust God to provide for your needs, then spending your paycheck the God would have it spent becomes the most natural thing in the world. If you have trust in God to provide for your safety, then going where God sends you is the most natural thing in the world.
Only with TRUST does the will of God look attractive.
If the will of God doesn't look attractive to you, if you are afraid of what God would have you do, if you are tentative in taking that next step of faith in God, it is probably because you don't trust God as much as you think you do. Trust is built up over time in a relationship. There is no way you can be the kind of person God wants you to be, to be sold out to His will, to accomplish the things that God wants for you in this world without trust. Trust in the Almighty.
Maybe today you need to stop asking God to reveal His will for you. Maybe you need to ask Him to help you trust Him more.
Only when there is trust will God bother to tell you His will for your life. He doesn't waste time telling His will to people that want to make final judgment on whether or not to do what He asks. He tells His will to people who trust Him enough that they've already agreed to do His will before they even know what it is.
That, my friends, is what trusting God is all about.
Then he stopped and asked, "Do the people in my church even WANT to know the will of God?"
I ask myself that same question all the time. If you ask most of the people in my church if they would like to know the will of God, they would eagerly say, "Yes!" I want to say, "Really? Do you REALLY want to know the will of God for your life?"
I would go on, "Do you REALLY want to know what God would do with you, where He would send you, how you would live, if God had complete control over your time, schedule, energy, etc? Isn't there a small part of you that says, 'Well, I really DON'T want to know. Can't I just be a good person and live my life and die and stand before God and tell Him, 'I just didn't know what You wanted me to do!'
Honestly, Christians, how many of us truly want to know God's will? How many of us want to know what time in the morning He wants us to get up, possibly to spend uninterrupted time in prayer, fasting, or study? How many of us truly want to know how God would spend our paycheck? How many of us truly want to know what profession God would send us into, how many children God would have us adopt, where He would have us live, and how He would have us treat the people we meet today?
All of a sudden, God's will doesn't look all that attractive.
At least, it doesn't look attractive to people who don't have the key element that the Christian faith is built on. The key element that many Christian lack, yet I don't believe you can truly be a Christian without it.
That key element is trust.
When the Christian has the key element of trust in God as his or her foundation, all of a sudden God's will looks like the greatest thing in the world. If you trust God to provide for your needs, then spending your paycheck the God would have it spent becomes the most natural thing in the world. If you have trust in God to provide for your safety, then going where God sends you is the most natural thing in the world.
Only with TRUST does the will of God look attractive.
If the will of God doesn't look attractive to you, if you are afraid of what God would have you do, if you are tentative in taking that next step of faith in God, it is probably because you don't trust God as much as you think you do. Trust is built up over time in a relationship. There is no way you can be the kind of person God wants you to be, to be sold out to His will, to accomplish the things that God wants for you in this world without trust. Trust in the Almighty.
Maybe today you need to stop asking God to reveal His will for you. Maybe you need to ask Him to help you trust Him more.
Only when there is trust will God bother to tell you His will for your life. He doesn't waste time telling His will to people that want to make final judgment on whether or not to do what He asks. He tells His will to people who trust Him enough that they've already agreed to do His will before they even know what it is.
That, my friends, is what trusting God is all about.
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