Get Over Your Past: Divine Direction
Its a new year, and we have a new preaching theme, Discovering Your Destiny... Is that something you desire to do this year?
Discover YOUR Destiny... Discover OUR Destiny...
Maybe your thinking, “Sounds like a nice idea, it would be great to discover and experience all that God has planned and purposed for my life. I want to see change in my life. I’m fed up with living a mediocre Christian Life. I want my days to be different. I want to be amazed and surprised as God draws me closer to Him each and every day.”
Or maybe your thinking, “No, not for me, I don’t want to change, I like my life exactly how it is. Every day the same. No surprises. No interruptions from God. No miracles in my life.”
God has a perfect plan for each and every one of us. For us to be able to fully experience everything God has planned for us we need to be willing to move on from where we are now, to where God wants us to be. Instead of living in the past, we need to live in the now, with an eager expectation of what God will do in each of our lives now and in this coming year.
If we want to be obedient disciples of Jesus then we must choose to allow God to work in our lives, to work in us and through us, to change and transform us. To take us from where we were, where we are to where God wants us to be.
As Christians we are not called to be comfortable where we are, we are called to step out in faith. If we continue to cling on to things that should have been left far in our past, we will never fully discover or experience everything we are supposed to discover.
God has created us, you and me with freedom of choice. Are you willing this year to choose to give God sovereign control of your life?
Are you willing to choose to commit to discovering your destiny?
God’s desires and expects each of us, His followers, His children, to seek to live our lives according to His will and purpose.
Sometimes we can make really good decisions and sometimes we can make the worst possible choice. From the outset, it is my hope that this year we will choose to do that which will bring honour and glory to God. That we will choose to place God’s will and purposes above our own preferences. That we will choose to be obedient to His commands and precepts.
The Bible, God’s Word, is more than just some good guidelines on how we are meant to live as His followers. As Christians, we believe God continues to speak to us today through the Bible, His Word. God’s Word is meant to be the final authority in every aspect of our lives. The Bible clearly shows us the life God wants us to live, and also where we fall short.
If we are honest with ourselves, and with God, each of us know there have been times in our past when we chose our way over God’s way, times when we took the easy option rather than the right option, times when instead of standing firm and striving for what God expected and desired of us, we fell short.
This year, let’s be different.
Let’s choose to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives each day to change and transform us.
Let’s choose to commit to following our Lord and His will and purpose for us.
Let’s choose to commit to following His divine direction for our lives.
God wants us, His people to make the right choice.
In the Bible there are many examples of when God encouraged His people to make the right choice, to follow His Divine Direction.
Let’s look at Deuteronomy 28:1-2, that speak of a choice the people of Israel faced. “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God.“
The Israelites had a choice, notice the word “If”, If they chose to obey God and follow his divine direction for their lives they would be blessed.
Yes, God is a God of Grace.
Yes, God is a God of Mercy.
Yes, God is a God of and Love.
Yes, God is a God of Forgiveness.
But that does not give us the freedom to live our lives ignoring His will and purpose for us.
We have a freedom to make our own choice, and our past may have been shaped by the good or bad choices we have made. God wants us, His people, His followers to choose to commit ourselves to Him.
Prompted by our love for Him.
Prompted by our commitment to Him.
Prompted by His perfect sacrifice for us.
Prompted by His perfect plan for us.
We respond with grateful hearts.
Jesus often used the word “IF”: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” Mark 8:34.
“If you love me, obey my commandments.” John 14:15
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” John 14:23
If, If you choose, God has given us a choice. A choice that can result in us being blessed and also being a blessing to others.
God wants us to move forward, to grow closer to Him, to grow in our faith and spiritual maturity, to stop dwelling on the things that have past and to embrace all He has planned for each and every one of us.
Examine your own life for a moment, are there any areas where you need to realign your choices.
Is there anything you need to put behind you so that you can move forward in your relationship with God?
Need an encouragement from scripture? Look at Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV) ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past...
Is there something that you refuse to forget that is stopping you from moving forward?
Or is there something that you are holding onto that you refuse to put aside?
We are saved, but we are not perfect, we stumble, we make mistakes, we may choose at times to please ourselves more than please God by the way we live, but because we are in Christ God forgives us. God wants to do something new, something fresh in your life, what is it that you are holding onto that is obstructing God’s will and plan for your life? Let me remind you of Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”
When we are given a choice, God’s way is always the right way, we need to choose His divine direction for our lives. We need to choose to trust the God who loves us and cares for us.
Choosing to follow God, choosing to be a disciple of Jesus, is the most important choice any of us will ever make.
Jesus made the ultimate choice, He chose to give His life for us at the cross. He chose to bear the penalty for our sin. He chose to die so that we may have the promise of our sins being forgiven and the assurance of eternal life.
We have the choice to accept Jesus as both Saviour and Lord of our lives. We have the choice to accept or reject what God has planned for our lives.
As I draw to a close, let me remind you of another time when the people of God were asked to make a choice.
In the old testament is the story of Joshua. When Joshua was about 110 years old; he gave one of the most important speeches of his life.
Joshua gathered the people around him and he spoke to them and gave them a challenge before he died. He told the people God had been good to them.
He reminded them how God had delivered them from slavery and wandering. Then Joshua told them the importance of putting God first, the importance of serving God, the importance of worshiping the right God in the right way, not putting any kind of substitute or idol before God.
Joshua told the people it was time to make a choice - listen to Joshua 24:15: But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” (NLT)
These verses are as relevant to us today, in January 2017, as they were to the people all those years ago. The choice is as relevant for us today as it was for them.
Give God first place in your life, worship and serve Him, or worship and serve someone or something else. Choose to walk in the light of God or stumble in the darkness.
Follow the will of God as a disciple of Christ and discover your destiny in Him.
Joshua’s ancient challenge to the Israelite families is a challenge to us today as Children of the living God. A challenge to embrace a changed life, a challenge to live each day as dynamic disciple, a challenge to discover our destiny.
The choice to follow God is a choice of sincere commitment. It means moving beyond a casual, convenient Christianity into something far more devoted, more committed. It means being whole hearted not half-hearted, it means being faithful not faithless.
Finally, may I encourage you to choose to make God your priority and your purpose. Choose to walk day by day with our Almighty God, be willing to allow God to lead you and guide you.
No matter what happened in 2016, no matter what is happening in your life right now, choose today, to place God at the centre of your life, to serve and worship Him, to follow His divine direction for your life.
This year may each of us choose to follow God's divine direction and discover our destiny.
