I’ve just read this great book by Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something, all about finding God’s will for your life.
He rightly says that we are obsessed with “the will of God” and “finding our calling”, we want to know God’ plan for our lives and we want it to be set out like Google Map instructions, step-by-step with a little diagram to make it really clear. We’re prone to looking for “God’s will” in everything – from breakfast cereal to career moves, holidays to marriage proposals.
DeYoung says this is not how it’s meant to go. Of course, God will get His own way and what He wants will happen; God does have a desire for His creation, revealed in His commands; and God does have a specific plan for our lives that in retrospect we will be able to see how He has worked it out. However, He does not burden us with having to figure out precisely what that plan is. God “is a good God who gives us brains, shows us the way of obedience, and invites us to take risks for Him”.
He says we need to “stop pleading with God to show us the future, and start living and obeying like we are confident that He holds the future”. Jesus said, in Matthew 6:24-35,
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.Are you not of more value than they?27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
The big idea here is pretty obvious – Jesus doesn’t want us to worry about the future, God knows exactly what we need and will take care of it. Our job is to “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness”.
That’s pretty much DeYoung’s message (and, as he shows, the message of scripture) – “Live for God. Obey the Sciprtures. Think of others before yourself. Be holy. Love Jesus.”
Or as Micah puts it “act justly . . . love mercy and . . . walk humbly with your God“.
What with spending a lot of time in the sound box, I can say that this one is so totally true!!
Whether it is sound or projection, there is nothing worse than everybody staring at you when it all goes wrong – I can see the screen and hear the feedback just as well as you, give me chance and I’ll do my best to sort it – your glower will not speed up the process!
Maybe next time it all goes wrong and people turn to look, I’ll stare straight back at them and not fix anything, until they can’t take it any longer and have to look away again . . .
The other night it was featured in a documentary on BBC 4 Baroque! – From St. Peter’s to St.Paul’s. I watched it mainly so I could sit and go, “I’ve been there!” and “I’ve seen that!” but actually it turned out tot be quite interesting and good. No where near as dull as you’d expect an art programme to be.
The David Crowder Band are back in the studio recording their latest album and, thanks to the joys of modern technology, we get to watch them doing it!!
They’ve set webcams up all over the place so we can see what they’re up to.
I’ve always thought of my young age to be a hindrance in the work that I can do for God. Sometimes this is a reality, due to policies or laws or whatever but actually God doesn’t care if I’m seventeen or seventy – He’s got work for me to do.
Mark Driscoll has posted a couple of pieces about young people who have a had a huge impact on the church:
Very interesting . . . (say it in a freaky german professor style voice)
Unfortunately I don’t use the google page itself, I use google chrome as my web browser so my address bar acts as my search thingy, i would totally use this otherwise.
One of the joys of WordPress is that I can see the links people have followed to ge to my blog and also the links they follow from my blog to other places. It’s quite interesting to see the patterns people clearly follow as they visit four or five blogs in succession, each day.
So here’s my advice. Get yourself a feed reader.
I use Google Reader. It’s great. All the posts, from all the blogs I read, in one place. I can “star” or “keep unread” anything I want to reread later. I can scan quickly through stuff I’m not so bothered about. I never have to miss a thing and don’t spend ages clicking through lots of different pages.
There’s plenty of other readers out there. I just don’t really know what they are. I’m a Google fan.
Only down side is that it means you don’t actually visit my blog which means I don’t get as many hits. Not that I’m paranoid about checking them or anything. Maybe it would be good for me for there to be a major slump. Just promise me you’ll check in again once in a while
You have to go and read Jon Acuff’s blogs – they’re very different but equally fantastic!
Stuff Christians Like - today’s post is “When people you are witnessing to think you are hitting on them” and suggests the use of phrases such as “I like you. Jesus loves you.” and “I love you like a neighbour, not a boyfriend”. Laugh out loud funny.
97secondswithgod – thought provoking in a different way. More sensible and contemplative but challenging and easy to read, in fact each post should take about 97 seconds!
all about finding God’s will for your life.
