God’s Will for My Life

That singular question which baffles most believers has got me thinking: “What’s God’s will for my life?” Whether old or young, male or female, Chinese or American, teacher or student, every child of God wonders at times just what God has is mind for us all. Sadly, many let the unknowns debilitate them, as if the absence of a detailed answer gives us permission to sit on our hands and wait.

Is God unclear in His call on your life? Is He too slow for your liking? At this fork in the road—whether big or small–are you doubting His guidance?

I hope that this essay will encourage you to see that finding God’s will for your life or for this momentary decision is not as difficult as you’re making it out to be. I desire to help you to gain a new perspective on life and to renew your trust in the sovereignty and wisdom of our awesome God.

My title “The Invitation” comes from some advice I received in seminary a number of years ago. The gist is this:

God is at work. God doesn’t need me to see His Work accomplished, but He wants me. And He is inviting me to join Him in the Work He is already doing. If I accept that invitation, He gets all the glory because of me, and I get every blessing. If I refuse the invitation, He still gets the glory, but despite me, and I lose every blessing.

This essay is for believers, the children of God, and as such it will come with some challenges both for individual Christians and for local church bodies. First, I hope to challenge individual believers in two ways. I challenge you to get involved not so much with what your church is doing but rather with what God is doing through your church. There really is a difference! I also challenge you to honestly ask yourself, “Am I an asset or a liability to the Kingdom of God?”

Second, I hope to challenge local church bodies to honestly ask yourselves two questions. First: “Have we as a church accepted God’s invitation to spread His Kingdom His Way? or are we trying to do things our way, while hoping that we have His blessing?” Second: “Are we as a church willing to change our methods—despite the trouble it might cause—if it means to join our Sovereign God in what He is already doing here in our city and nation?”

I can’t answer these questions for you, but I pray that as we look at three characters in the Bible who also recognized God’s invitation in their lives, a spark will be set in your hearts to truly consider these things on your own. The characters we’ll look at are Paul, Jonah, and beautiful Queen Esther.

Paul: “Because of Me” (Gal 1:11-24)

In this passage, the Apostle Paul relates his own ministry-history to the Galatians. In verses 11-12, he tells them: “No one but Christ taught me the Gospel that I now preach.” In verses 15-16, he tells them: “God called me by His grace—He set me apart before I was born—and He was pleased to reveal His Son, Jesus, to me, so that I would preach Him among the Gentiles.” In verses 22-23, he tells them: “The believers of Judea knew me by reputation: ‘He who used to persecute us is now preaching the Gospel he had tried to destroy.” Then finally in verse 24, he boldly proclaims: “And they glorified God because of me.” The “they” in verse 24 refers specifically to the believers in Judea, but it also speaks all those whom Paul reached with the Gospel, because he obeyed Christ in this mission.

The Apostle Paul was no an arrogant man. In his thirteen epistles, we’ve just a snippet of all he wrote and taught over many years of service. Whenever he spoke of himself, he did so in defense against those who would attack his character. He truly was a humble man, a faithful servant of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Thus when we read his bold words here, “They glorified Christ because of me”, we must consider the fact that he wasn’t speaking from arrogance but rather from an acknowledgment of reality. God had invited Paul to something great and wonderful, to take the Gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles! Paul accepted this invitation, leaving his life of faithful Judaism to serve the revealed Messiah. And people noticed.

We know from many passages that this was not an invitation to an easier life. In fact Paul’s life as a follower of Jesus was more dangerous, terrifying, and painful than ever before. Just skim through the second half of Acts to witness his stoning, imprisonments, shipwrecks, snakebites, and enemies on all sides! Just read through 2Cor 11:23-29 to witness the hardships of this dedicated, faithful servant of Christ! God’s invitation to service is not an invitation to and easier life. The next time someone tells you that God rewards His servants with “Health, Wealth and a Comfy Self”, you can tell them to go read their Bibles. Not long before he was beheaded and while he was in prison for the second time, this Apostle Paul wrote to his student Timothy in 2Tim 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Astounding, isn’t it?

Paul’s faithfulness to keep his eyes open to the ministry opportunities around him—-in his case, to go where Christ had yet been preached and to plant churches—resulted in two very important things. First, it resulted in praise to the glory of God from both believers and unbelievers. Second, it resulted in Paul’s own personal satisfaction in a life (albeit a difficult life) spent in service for God. His end-of-life proclamation in 2Tim 4:7-8a makes this clear: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.”

Jonah: “In Spite of Me” (Jonah 1:4-16)

You probably already know the historical account of Jonah, the man whom God called to take the Gospel to Israel’s enemy the Ninevites, but who instead took a boat in the opposite direction (Jonah 1:1-3). The account in Jonah 1:4-16 is so vivid, I’ve got to share it hear so you can catch every nuance:

But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”

And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

Just as God had invited Paul to do some great and wonderful things in His name, so He invited Jonah to reach the Ninevites with the Gospel. Unlike Paul who accepted that invitation, however, Jonah refused God’s invitation. God then sought to get Jonah’s attention through the storm on the sea, yet Jonah again refused to listen. Jonah needed the pressure of pagan sailors to get him to admit his wrong, but even then, he admitted that he would rather die than repent! You’ve got to admit: he never expected to survive being cast overboard, whether in a fish’s belly or by any other means.

The more we read of Jonah, the worse the man is proven to be. The pagan sailors beg for forgiveness from God for throwing his prophet overboard, and when the storm ceases, they bow down and worship Yahweh as the only Almighty God. Let me tell you something: God wanted these sailors to praise Him, and they did, not because of Jonah but despite him.

After God preserved Jonah—likely much to his dismay—and after the fish coughed him up onto dry land, he went through the motions of evangelism in Ninevah. How do we know he wasn’t sincerely obeying God by asking these people to repent? Because he actually prays for God to kill them all rather than save them! While Jonah dips into his depressive funk, the Ninevites turn to God and praise and worship Him alone. God wanted the Ninevites to praise Him, and they did, not because of Jonah but despite him.

I know that Jonah’s a Sunday School favorite, but this prophet of God has got to be the worst “good guy” in the entire Bible. He was a man of terrible character, and it’s hard to find any high points in his track record of service to God: the sailors praised God despite Jonah, the Ninevites praised God despite Jonah, and all he wanted to do was die.

The truth is, God will always accomplish His will and complete His work despite the unfaithfulness of His servants. The only loss that comes through the unfaithfulness of God’s servant is what the servant himself loses: he loses joy, blessing, and fulfillment in life. Recall from Jesus’ “Parable of the Talents” that the servant who buried his talents was the only one who lost everything—the Master lost nothing (Matthew 25:14-30).

Esther: “What about Me?” (Esther 4:13-14)

If I were to leave the essay like this and tell you that we’ve all got an invitation from God to accept or reject, you’d probably say: “Wait a second. Both Paul and Jonah received their invitations directly from God, in person. They heard His voice. I’ve never heard anything like that, so how can you tell me I’ve got an invitation like they had?” Well, there’s another character in Scripture who had the very same type of invitation as Paul and Jonah (to be part of God’s salvation), and yet she never heard God’s voice either. She simply opened her eyes and ears to the world around her and recognized God’s call. Her name was Queen Esther.

Esther was a Jewess living as Queen in a foreign land. An enemy of the Jews had already convinced her husband the King to make it lawful on a single day for anyone to murder and steal from any Jew they pleased. Through intermediary servants, Esther’s Uncle, Mordecai, told her of this terrible news and challenged her to boldly step in to help. Esther 4:13-14 record this:

Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

In all honesty, I cannot think of any better passage in the Bible that weds God’s sovereignty with man’s free will better than these words from Mordecai. He basically says: “God’s people are threatened, but they will not be destroyed. God will save His people. Their salvation is not the issue. The issue is whether you (Esther) want to be part of that salvation or not.” Then he continues: “Who knows? It could be that God has put you here just so you can have a part in the salvation of the Jews (which is already a done deal). He has invited you to take part in something guaranteed and awesome. The question is, will you join Him or not?”

Clearly, we all have a choice to make in our own lives, but this is not a choice that depends on “hearing God’s voice tell me His purpose for my life” or “finding out exactly what God wants me to do.” God’s will for your life is simple: join the Work that He’s already doing. Whatever that work is, do it. Find it and do it. Open your eyes, find out what God is doing, and do it. The only thing holding you back from accomplishing God’s will for your life is you.

Have you ever wondered why you’re still here? When you became a child of God, why didn’t He just take you home to Heaven immediately? Why does God keep and protect you on this Earth (Psalm 121)? The only logical answer to these questions is this: “God still has more for you to do. And He is inviting you to join Him in doing His Work.”

Unless you are dead right now as you read this, you are in the exact same situation as Esther, Jonah and Paul. God is at work. His work is guaranteed to be awesome. His work will be accomplished somehow and in some way. His work will be accomplished either with you or without you.

If you refuse the invitation to join Him in this work, your disobedience will not thwart God’s work. If you accept the invitation to join Him in what He is doing, He welcomes you and He will bless with joy and fulfillment. You might not be healthy; you might not be wealthy; but you will be satisfied. And so, your choice is simple: find out what God is doing and either join Him or not.

CONCLUSION:

I close by repeating both that bit of advice I received in seminary and the challenges given to both individual believers and local church bodies:

God is at work. God doesn’t need me to see His Work accomplished, but He wants me. And He is inviting me to join Him in the Work He is already doing. If I accept that invitation, He gets all the glory because of me, and I get every blessing. If I refuse the invitation, He still gets the glory, but despite me, and I lose every blessing.

First, I challenge you individual believers in two ways. I challenge you to get involved not so much with what your church is doing but rather with what God is doing through your church. There really is a difference! I also challenge you to honestly ask yourself, “Am I an asset or a liability to the Kingdom of God?”

Second, I challenge local church bodies to honestly ask yourselves two questions. First: “Have we as a church accepted God’s invitation to spread His Kingdom His Way? or are we trying to do things our way, while hoping that we have His blessing?” Second: “Are we as a church willing to change our methods—despite the trouble it might cause—if it means to join our Sovereign God in what He is already doing here in our city and nation?”

©2018 E.T.