Here is a topic that has caused great grief for most Christians, and I have to confess that my own life is no exception.  “What is God’s will or plan for my life?”  That is a question we all seem to wrestle with, both in our thought-life and out-loud verbally as we ask God, family, pastors and friends about it.  We tend to view Christian leaders like evangelists, teachers, pastors and missionaries as having found God’s perfect plan for themselves, but then we often compare our own mundane lives, feeling like we have somehow either missed God’s will for our lives, or worse, that perhaps He just doesn’t really have a cool plan like that for us.

   First of all, I want to assure you that most, if not all, full-time Christian workers continue to struggle with the same question, even while appearing to be doing great works for God.  Being a pastor, for example, doesn’t really prove you are doing God’s will any more than if you are a newspaper delivery boy.  I believe it is quite obvious that many Christian leaders have never been directed by God to do some of the things they do, but I don’t really want to go there right now. 

   I mainly just want you to learn how to be able to relax in your relationship with God, confident that He can be trusted to guide you even on a moment by moment basis, if that should ever become necessary.  I say “if” because, I believe for the most part, that God is pleased to see us simply live out our lives making free choices, using whatever gifts and talents He has given us to work with.  On the one hand it blesses us to know we are truly free, and on the other hand it blesses God when we use that freedom to bless others living around us.

   I heard a pastor once teach that God’s will consists not of what we’re doing, but rather who we are becoming.  I like that.  You see, it is God’s will for us to become more and more like Christ, and also that we would encourage others to do likewise.  Jesus made it clear that God’s will is not complicated, but that we are simply to love God and love man.  We are therefore all able to accomplish this, no matter what our abilities are, where we live or how we choose to make a living.  So then, being a full-time church worker is clearly not the only way to fully please God.

   In reading the Scriptures, I find it interesting that neither Paul or any of the other New Testament writers try to get people in the church to become so-called “full-time" Christian workers.  They rather focus on encouraging all of us to live full-time godly lives, whether we are rich or poor, slave or free.  That is God’s will for us.  Paul makes this quite clear in Titus 2:1-15, as he tells Titus what to teach the church.

1 But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine:
2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;
3 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—
4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,
5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
6 Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded,
7 in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility,
8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.
9 Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back,
10 not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. 11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
15 Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.

   I think it is quite clear that while God’s plan or will for our lives is very specific in regard to our character traits, it remains quite broad in the way we can choose to live out our Christian lives from day to day.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, Paul tells the church:

11 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,
12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

   I hope you can see by these verses that God clearly has no intention of micro-managing our lives. If you have been led to believe that God has a specific, perfect will, that includes what you will daily eat, what clothes you will wear, what job you will have, what people you will meet, and even what you will say to them, then you have been misled, and will only frustrate yourself to no end in trying to live that way.  On the other hand, always feel free to pray and ask the Lord what to do if you really find yourself stuck for some reason.  Reading God’s Word prayerfully, combined with what you already know about yourself, should give you lot’s of great ideas as to what you can do with your life that will bring satisfaction to you, blessing to others, and pleasure to our great God.  

   While God sometimes does set apart certain individuals for special, unique works like Paul, Jeremiah, and some others mentioned in the Bible, they are clearly the exceptions rather than the rule.  So then, since Christ has set you free, use your freedom, gifts, talents, along with His grace, to go out into the world and bring Him honor and glory.  That is God's will for your life!

-nOFuTuRe