When I was younger, I was obsessed with the idea of finding God's plan for my life. In my mind, God's plan was a magical thing. It told me who I should marry, where I should go to school, what career I should choose, and all manner of other, lesser decisions. If I could just discern God's plan, life would go splendidly. So I prayed diligently that God would reveal His plan to me. I studied books like Experiencing God, which taught me how to hear God's voice. I waited...and waited.
Here is what I now believe: It's not about finding God's plan at all. It's about following Him. He's not a fortune teller, He's a shepherd. He's not a guidance counselor, He's our Father. When we follow Him, He leads us down the path of His choosing. We will rarely know where He is taking us next, and often the path He leads us down won't seem immediately more prosperous than other potential paths we might have chosen if we were living life on our own terms. But God knows what He is doing. Ultimately, following Him is the only way to live.
So how do we do that? In Ruth 2-3, we see how this humble young Moabite woman, a new convert to the worship of Yahweh, followed God's path and experienced His provision in an uncertain time of her life. We can learn a lot from Ruth, and I hope you'll be there to experience it with me this Sunday. Remember, it's a big Sunday for us, with our 45th anniversary observance, a business meeting afterward, and the organ recital that afternoon. It's so big, God must have figured we needed an extra hour to prepare, so He made it Time Change Sunday!
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2 comments:
Very encouraging words. God Himself says He knows the plans He has for His people, but that's not an exhortation for us to seek them out—it's a call to follow and an assurance of His perfect love for us, past, present, and future.
Thanks, Lee. Don't seek God's plan...seek God, and He'll lead you into His plan. That's a tough one for us, because we want to feel like we're in control.
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