From Connect the Dots by Mike Hurt
How does life change when you find God’s will for your life? Seriously, what changes? If God told you exactly what to do, it was crystal clear. How would you live, work, relate, or worship differently than you did before you knew the will of God?
You would agree that knowing does not always equal doing. Take the speed limit for example. We know, but we seldom do. Some of us think that if we can find God’s will for our lives then we get to go on autopilot. Our solution for all of the struggles we are facing is to discover God’s will so that we don’t have to work on the hard stuff anymore. We are like the star of a well-traveled urban legend. Perhaps an email like this has cluttered your inbox:
“In November 2000, Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32 foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the Winnie left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the handbook that he could not actually do this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago.”
Other versions of this tale include references to drives like “Mr. Grazinski” who thought that cruise control meant auto pilot. It’s absurd to you and me. We know that to drive you need at least a knee on the wheel and a foot on the gas pedal. Don’t become your own urban legend by thinking that God’s will is like your auto pilot or cruise control. When you discover what God wants for you to do, it will take energy and effort on our part to live it out.
Others among us think that if we knew with certainty what God wanted us to do then we would do it without question and no matter the cost to our life. The problem with this is that it not consistent with life or with Scripture. There are commands in Scripture that you and I disobey everyday. I don’t know what your favorites are. Mine usually centers on a rebellious attitude. We know God’s will – obey my Word – yet we don’t do it. Each of us can also remember a time when we knew God wanted us to do something and we didn’t. His Spirit whispered to us. We knew it was God yet we did not take action. Maybe this was a prompt to share your faith with a new friend or a prompt to shut your mouth when everyone else was bashing your boss. Either case, you ignored the prompting. You and I have proven it: knowledge of God’s will is no guarantee for obedience to God’s will.
When it comes to both looking for the will of God while at the same time, ignoring the will of God, we are not alone. Some of the best men and women in Scripture have done the very same thing. Back to the burning bush: Moses’ first response was not obedience. It was questioning. God told him what he should do in clear terms. Moses had no doubt what God wanted. What he had were questions that somehow if God could not answer them would somehow let him off the obedience hook. There is no getting off the obedience hook when it comes to God if we are going to live his will.
[1] http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/cruise.asp
One of the reasons certainty does not result in obedience is because God is not looking for certainty. He is looking for faith. This is a huge lesson. While we want to know more, God wants us to trust more. When we want assurances concerning the future, God want for us to place our future in his hand. When we want to our doubts and fears to go way, God wants us to turn them to a strengthened faith in him. It is our faith in the middle of every circumstance that pleases God – not our certainty of our next step.
You would agree that knowing does not always equal doing. Take the speed limit for example. We know, but we seldom do. Some of us think that if we can find God’s will for our lives then we get to go on autopilot. Our solution for all of the struggles we are facing is to discover God’s will so that we don’t have to work on the hard stuff anymore. We are like the star of a well-traveled urban legend. Perhaps an email like this has cluttered your inbox:
“In November 2000, Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32 foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the Winnie left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the handbook that he could not actually do this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago.”
Other versions of this tale include references to drives like “Mr. Grazinski” who thought that cruise control meant auto pilot. It’s absurd to you and me. We know that to drive you need at least a knee on the wheel and a foot on the gas pedal. Don’t become your own urban legend by thinking that God’s will is like your auto pilot or cruise control. When you discover what God wants for you to do, it will take energy and effort on our part to live it out.
Others among us think that if we knew with certainty what God wanted us to do then we would do it without question and no matter the cost to our life. The problem with this is that it not consistent with life or with Scripture. There are commands in Scripture that you and I disobey everyday. I don’t know what your favorites are. Mine usually centers on a rebellious attitude. We know God’s will – obey my Word – yet we don’t do it. Each of us can also remember a time when we knew God wanted us to do something and we didn’t. His Spirit whispered to us. We knew it was God yet we did not take action. Maybe this was a prompt to share your faith with a new friend or a prompt to shut your mouth when everyone else was bashing your boss. Either case, you ignored the prompting. You and I have proven it: knowledge of God’s will is no guarantee for obedience to God’s will.
When it comes to both looking for the will of God while at the same time, ignoring the will of God, we are not alone. Some of the best men and women in Scripture have done the very same thing. Back to the burning bush: Moses’ first response was not obedience. It was questioning. God told him what he should do in clear terms. Moses had no doubt what God wanted. What he had were questions that somehow if God could not answer them would somehow let him off the obedience hook. There is no getting off the obedience hook when it comes to God if we are going to live his will.
[1] http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/cruise.asp
One of the reasons certainty does not result in obedience is because God is not looking for certainty. He is looking for faith. This is a huge lesson. While we want to know more, God wants us to trust more. When we want assurances concerning the future, God want for us to place our future in his hand. When we want to our doubts and fears to go way, God wants us to turn them to a strengthened faith in him. It is our faith in the middle of every circumstance that pleases God – not our certainty of our next step.