Forget About God's Will For Your Life

The Francis Chan, Forgotten God study my LCC Small Group is doing is so powerful. We have one more week of discussing it and I have to admit that I'm a little sad to see it go. But the lessons learned and the changes made in my own heart have been incredible. I was reading last night in Chapter 7 of Forgotten God and it really impacted me strongly and I hope that by writing it here that it can impact you as well. The whole book is awesome, but Chapter 7 alone is worth the whole $14.99. Seriously, it's probably worth way more than $14.99. Here are the two parts I read that really impacted me:


"I think a lot of us need to forget about 'God's will for my life'. God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be so profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today's decisions. To be honest, I believe part of the desire to 'know God's will for my life' is birthed in fear and results in paralysis. We are scared to make mistakes, so we fret over figuring out God's will. We wonder what living according to His will would actually look like, and we are scared to find out. We forget that we are never promised a twenty-year plan of action; instead, God promises multiple times in scripture never to leave us or forsake us. "


This is so freeing for me- I think we've all heard this and we understand it, but do we believe it? Do we live by this principle of seeking after the Spirit today and knowing that God's purpose and plan will be revealed as we take an active, participatory role in our ongoing relationship  with the Spirit? And if you're tempted to believe that this active, participatory role is difficult or part of a "works theology", you couldn't be further from the truth. Because the flip side of this action we take to constantly respond to God and work on problem areas in our lives, is that His Spirit will be the source of power to do it. As Chan states, "We work out our salvation as God works in us." 


We're a team. But we seldom see it that way, because we try to lead God around like a stubborn dog on a leash, rather than letting go and seeing where He will lead us. 


Chan also writes about this in Chapter 7:


"Nowhere in Scripture do I see a 'balanced life with a little bit of God added in' as an ideal for us to emulate. Yet, when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives. People who have, in a sense asked Him to join them on their life journey, to follow them where they feel they should go, rather than following Him as commanded. The God of the universe is not something we can just add to our lives and keep on as we did before. The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is not someone we can just call on when we want a little extra power in our lives. Jesus Christ did not die in order to follow us. He died and rose again so that we could forget everything else and follow Him to the cross, to true life." 


I pray that we all throw out our ideas of having things all together before we fully pursue life with God. I pray that we stop trying to make God do things our way or leveraging His glory to get what we want or think we're entitled to. I pray that we let go and let God do what He does best- be God. 




But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10