I have a problem when I go to the store. There are just too many choices. I want to do something as simple as buy some cheese, but I have to decide what kind of cheese. Do I want Provolone, Swiss, Cheddar, American, Pepper, Blue, Brick, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Gouda or Brie. I went to Cheese.com and found 652 kinds of cheese. But once I have chosen the kind of cheese I want, there are still many decisions to be made. Do I want a brick, a wedge or sliced cheese? Do I want it cubed or shredded. Do I want it sharp or mild? Do I want it from the Deli or prepackaged? A complex variety of choices is the bane and blessing of the American lifestyle.
There are hundreds of channels on satellite and cable TV. People who come here from other countries are paralyzed by the choices in an ordinary Walmart. Just buying a pair of athletic shoes can be overwhelming. So many choices.
How do you find your way in a world where there are so many choices? A lot of people make decisions according to how they feel. Decisions are largely made on the emotional level. They are guided by what feels like the right thing to do. Others try to make rational decisions. They inspect everything and read all the labels. They spend a lot of time checking out things to make sure they have made the right decision. But how does a Christian operate in the confusing world of choices? A Christian pays attention to their feelings and listens to their mind, but foremost the Christian seeks the will of God. I am not talking about which soap to buy, although how we use our money is often an issue where we should seek the mind of God. Making everyday choices can be difficult, but the bigger decisions can incapacitate us even more. So, this morning, I want to concentrate on the larger issues of setting the course and direction of our lives. When it comes to the major decisions in our lives, we need to passionately seek the will of God and follow the will of God.
If you are going to be a follower of God you will have to be a seeker after his will. The first rule in following Gods’s will is: If you are going to follow God’s will you have to desire God’s will. This sounds so basic, but there are many people who never think about asking what God’s will is in a situation. You will never discover God’s will if you are set on doing what you want to do. You have to be convinced that God’s will is important. You have to understand that if you miss God’s will for your life, you have missed everything. You have ideas about what you want to do and where you want your life to go, but do you long to find God’s will and purpose in your life? Finding God’s will must be more important than fulfilling your own plans. It means, as Paul put it, “. . .doing the will of God from your heart” (Ephesians 6:6).
I recently read about a man who was trying to lose weight. He said, “I am not much given to visions and personal revelations, but recently I had a real experience of the working of God in my life. As you know, I’ve been on a diet. I’ve been pretty good, but what a struggle. The other day I had to go downtown. As I started out I remembered the Daylight Donut Shop. They make some real world class doughnuts. Driving along I thought, ‘A cup of coffee and a doughnut would really hit the spot.’ But then I remembered my diet. So I said a silent prayer, ‘God, if you want me to stop for a doughnut, let there be a parking place right in front.’ Sure enough, seventh time around the block . . ..”
It is possible to think you want God’s will, but you really don’t. You let your feelings overpower and seduce you. Your stubborn self-will rises to the top and vetoes God’s will. There is a story in the Old Testament where the people of Israel were in great difficulty. They were about to be invaded by the Babylonian army and be destroyed. Making the right move was a matter of life and death. The Bible says, “Then. . . all the people from the least to the greatest approached Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, ‘Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do’” (Jeremiah 42:1-3). Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God” (Jeremiah 42:5-6). So Jeremiah prayed for God’s direction. Ten days, after the people had a lot of time to discuss the issue, Jeremiah returned with a message from God: “If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down. . . . Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land” (Jeremiah 42:10-12). That sounds like good news, but the people were afraid and would not listen to the Lord. They wanted to run away to Egypt where they would feel safe, in spite of the fact that Jeremiah warned them not to go. The account says, “When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the Lord their God — everything the Lord had sent him to tell them — . . .all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, “You must not go to Egypt to settle there. . . . So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord. . . .” (Jeremiah 43:1-2,7). And, true to Jeremiah’s prophecy, the people died in the place where they sought safety. They sought God’s will, and they thought they wanted God’s will, but when it came down to it, they relied on their own wisdom rather than the clear leading of God. They opted for feelings of security rather than the security of doing God’s will. That is the way of the world. The words of Scripture are important here: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).
But what if you want God’s will, and you would follow it, but you don’t know what it is? Confusion clouds your mind and uncertainty fills your days. The second step in following God’s will is this: If you are going to follow God’s will you have to do what it takes to discover it. Elizabeth Elliott, in her book A Slow and Certain Light, tells of two adventurers who stopped by to see her when she was a missionary in Equador. They were all loaded with equipment for the rain forest east of the Andes. They didn’t ask her for any advice except on how to speak a few phrases in order to converse with the Indians. They were not interested in any advise she could give them — after all, what did a missionary woman know? They were unaware of the dangers which awaited them. She writes: “Sometimes we come to God as the two adventurers came to me confident and, we think, well-informed and well-equipped. But has it occurred to us that with all our accumulation of stuff, something is missing?” She goes on to say: “We know what we need — a yes or no, please, to a simple question. Or perhaps a road sign. Something quick and easy to point the way. What we really ought to have is the Guide himself. Maps, road signs, a few useful phrases are good things, but infinitely better is someone who has been there before and knows the way.”
If you are going to discover the will of God you are going to have to do what it takes to discover it. You not only have to get prepared for the trip, and do everything you know how to do, but most importantly, you have to take the Guide with you. You have to be sure he is going along and has been invited to be a part of the adventure. If you rely on your own wisdom and experience you might get lost in the jungle, but if you follow the Guide you will always be going in the right direction. The Bible says, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 10:35-11:1).
How do you discover God’s will? It is actually not that hard, but it goes against our grain. If you want to know God’s will, and succeed in the course of life, you have to do the same kinds of things you do to complete a course in school: 1. Read the Book. 2. Get to know the Instructor. 3. Listen to other people who have been in the class before. 4. Pray that you pass the test.
You read the Book because it was written by the One who designed life. I have never done very well in a course where I did not read the book. If I am going to discover what I need to learn, I have to read the Book. It involves a lot of effort. I know that reading the instructions goes against everything that is male, but it is the only way to figure things out. Trial and error is the hard way to do things. We keep thinking that we ought to have enough natural intuition to know how life should work and what we are supposed to do in any given situation. It hurts our egos to stop and ask directions. We think we should know everything without having to do something like that. I know that when I buy something that requires assembly, I think I should be able to figure it out on my own. Besides, it takes too much time and effort to read all that stuff! Only if I make a mess of things do I finally read the instructions. The problem is that I have wasted a lot of time and ruined a lot of things over the years because I did not take the time to read the instructions. There have been a lot of times when I have to take the whole thing apart just so I can back up and do it right.
The other important thing in getting a passing grade in any course is to know the instructor. It really doesn’t matter what you think is important, it is what the instructor thinks is important that matters. That’s the material on which you will be tested. You want to know how he thinks and what kind of questions he will ask. It is the same with God. If I am going to follow God I am going to have to get to know him. What does he see as important? On what is he testing me? What questions is he going to ask? How does he think? What does he expect me to know? The closer the relationship I have with him is, the better I am going to do in his course.
I learned in college that another important method of doing well in a course was to talk to other people who had been in the course before. They had experience. They knew how to study and what the tests were like. They passed the course and I could benefit from their knowledge. When I am seeking God’s will I talk to other people whose lives I trust — people who have been in the Christian walk for a while. I look at the lives of biblical characters and see how they handled certain situations. I read the biographies of great Christians and gain inspiration and direction from their lives. I listen to other seasoned Christians who have had struggles, because they have gone before me and can tell me how they were able to follow God.
The third rule of finding God’s will is: If you are going to follow God’s will you have to step out in faith. When it all comes down to the final moments, you simply have to pray that you pass the test. After you have read the Book, gotten to know the Instructor and listened to others who have been in the class before, the rest is up to you. You get on your knees and pray. You take everything into your mind and pray like crazy that you make the right decision. You commit it to God in prayer. You may still feel uncertain, but sooner or later you are going to have to come to a decision. If you wait until you have no doubts about what it is you are supposed to do, you will probably never do anything. You have to take a leap of faith. Someone put it like this: “And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light. that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way’” [Minnie L. Haskins].
Have you ever been on a night hike? It is a whole new experience in the woods. Because all you have is a flashlight, and you cannot see except for a few feet ahead of you. But as you step into the light, the light advances and you have enough light to take another step. We would all like for the sky to part and God to come and light the end as well as the beginning of our journey, but that is not how it works. We only get as much light as we need. We take one step at a time into what appears to be darkness all around us. But when we are faithful in taking one step, we are given enough light for another — all the time praying that every step we take will be in the will of God.
The final point is this: Once you have stepped out in faith commit your way to God. After you have done all you can do and made a decision, don’t spend time worrying about whether it was the right decision. It is wasted time and energy that could be better used on other things. The Bible gives us this great assurance: “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:27-28). It is not all up to us. God is watching over us. Christ is praying for us. The Holy Spirit is interceding for us according to God’s will. What that means is that even if we should make a mistake, the grace of God is big enough to cover it. All is not lost.
One man wrote about when he was going through a difficult time. There was an important decision he had to make. He wasn’t sure which way to go, and he was afraid that whichever decision he made he would always wonder if it were the right one. A seasoned Christian gave him some wise words of advise. He said: “When a decision has been made and the die is cast, then murder the alternatives.” That is good advise. After you have made a decision, be sure to murder the alternatives. Don’t try to bring other possibilities to life. Never look back, always look forward. The apostle Paul wrote: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14 ).
Take comfort in the scripture that says, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17).
Rodney J. Buchanan
July 21, 2002
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
BECAUSE I WANT MY LIFE TO BE LED BY GOD:
I will consider the three areas of my life where I need his guidance most:
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I will read the Bible until I get three scriptures which will guide me in my search for an answer:
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I will talk to God and the following three Christian friends about the matter:
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After much prayer I will commit the following decisions to Him:
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