The Green Pastures

Trust and Rely

“Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, and He will make your paths straight and smooth” Proverbs 3:5-6

The main issue I hear about God’s will is the inability to find out what it is. That issue is both a nearly impossible search and a simple solution. It is a nearly impossible search because God does not intend to reveal it all before we advance. Along the way, God may reveal steps, but to expect God to give the whole blueprint in advance is just not biblical. This might make it more of a trying time, but the blessing is the chance to look back and see how God used every little thing, even the things you thought He could never use. It is a simple solution because God promises to make your paths straight and smooth for the low cost of knowing, acknowledging, and recognizing God and not relying on your own insight or understanding. So how do you apply that? In Matthew 6, Jesus Himself says to seek, or strive after, His kingdom and His righteousness. In everything, ask if it is for the kingdom. I heard a pastor talking about God’s will and said this, “Find where passions and ministry intersect and that’s where you are called.” What he was saying is that if God gives you gifts in a certain field and the desires to do it, then you should just apply that to growing God’s kingdom. There was a Christian on social media talking about a practice he was doing to focus on God’s will. He said how he prays and asks God for every decision and would obey. For instance, he brought up how he had put together a full post. Right before he posted he asked God if he should. When God told him no, he deleted it completely, even though he thought the post was good. I bring that up because it can seem trite to bring the smallest of things to God. I would argue that the everyday things should be brought to Him as much as the big things.

Comfort and Confusion

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways’” Isaiah 55:8

When you let God in on every decision, you will get clarity, but there will still be confusion. There may be times when you think you have been called to something only for God to reveal you were not. For instance, I’ve talked about my being rejected from my preferred college before. I thought God was calling me there. Although it never came to be, I learned many lessons through that time in my life. I did not see all of the lessons when I was in it, but it is something I look back on and still learn from. As 2 Corinthians shows, God uses both our comfort and afflictions to comfort those in afflictions. I have already seen how my trial of rejection has already been used by God to comfort those going through similar trials. I have heard it many times that there are three responses from God concerning our prayers: yes, no, and wait. We always want a yes, and maybe we’ll settle for a wait, but to get a no means God will teach you something. If I can learn from the maker of all, I’ll count that as a win. 

God’s Will and Mine

“Saying, if You are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” Luke 22:42

This verse is one of my favorite moments from the life of Jesus. It gives a glimpse of His last free moments. It shows Him praying to God as we all should. He is well aware of what is about to happen: the brutal lashings, mockery, and crucifixion. In preparation of that, He goes to God with a prayer, asking that God may “pass the cup”, referring to the wrath of God He is about to endure. This first half of the prayer shows the level of love of this sacrifice. I believe Jesus was fully able to stop this if He wanted to. Instead, He finished the prayer with something I think everyone should strive to mirror, “Not my will, but yours be done”. Knowing the wrath ahead of Him, He still chooses God’s divine will over His own. To help with acting that out in life, God promises to give new desires. As Ezekiel 36 says, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you”. When we make God the king of our hearts, He will give us new and better desires, desires for His kingdom and not our plans.

God Calling and Strengthening

“Now an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him” Luke 22:43

In preparing to write the last section, I was hit with this verse in a new way. It is amazing to see the example of praying for God’s will being carried out by Christ in verse 42. But furthermore, verse 43 shows that God strengthens those He calls. I used to think God just called me and that it was up to me to fulfill that calling. I thought I could never live up to the calling God put on my life. Even now, I can forget and start to doubt, then I repeat to myself what a pastor of mine said, that God will not call you to what He will not strengthen you to. God does not call you to something just to passively watch. He is actively empowering you through every step. So when you feel inadequate for something, remember that it is not you that must live up to Gods calling, rather, you are to let God have full control to work in and through you. Enjoy the front seat to what God is going to do when you surrender everything to Him.