Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

freewill

God’s Will

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What is your purpose in life?  What is your mission?  Have you ever thought about big questions like these or are you content to simply take each day as it comes?  The Biblical answer to these questions is beautifully simple to discover yet maddeningly complex to implement!

For as long as I can remember I have heard Christians lament about the fact that they don’t know God’s will for their life, they don’t know what they were put on earth to do.  For those folks, I have great news: you can indeed know with 100% certainty what God’s will is for your life.  God’s will for your life is the same as it is for my life and for your neighbor’s life.  God’s will is that we would love him with an all consuming, passionate and unconditional love.  Not only this, but His will is that we love everyone with whom we come into contact with this same all consuming, passionate and unconditional love.  Show His glory to others by demonstrating His love at all times.  Tell others about Him with our words and actions.  That’s it; it really is no more and no less than this.  This is what Scripture teaches us is the will of God.

Still, we all want to know what this looks like on a more practical, day to day level.  What are we to do with our lives as it concerns our work, dreams and goals?  Beyond loving people, what else are we to do?  Should we not seek to do extravagant and amazing things for God?  Should we not seek to prosper so we might have more resources with which to serve the poor and hungry?  We know we are to love, but that doesn’t tell us what we should do for our vocation or if we should get married or if we should become a missionary in a foreign land or any of a hundred other questions!  How do we know what to do in these circumstances?

I submit to you that love is the answer here as well.  Go loves us more than we could ever possibly hope to imagine.  He has given each of us passions, dreams and talents.  All we have to do is determine how best to use our gifts to demonstrate His love.  Maybe it means staying in that dead end job so you can continue to love your co-workers.  Or maybe it means you leave that dead end job to give you time to drink more fully of His love so you can share more of it with even more people.

Whatever decision you face, look at the issue in terms of how you might best demonstrate the love of Christ.  Imagine all the ways you can serve Him if you decided to do plan A or plan B.  Which decision gives you the greatest opportunity to fulfill His will for your life?  Remember His will is simply that you love Him with all that you are, and you love everyone else in the same way.  Are you participating in activities, relationships or a job that is choking the amount of love you are able to show to others?  Are the things you are currently doing preventing you from fully serving and loving God?  If your answer is yes, then you are out of the will of God, and it is time to put aside anything that would hold you back from total love and devotion to the one we call Lord.  Decide today to walk in His way only.  Walk in love.

What Might Have Been

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I believe when we die that we will have to give an account for all the things we did in our life.  That can be an appalling and dreadful thought, because my actions have most assuredly not always been good.  While the thought of this accounting can cause us to measure our words and be more thoughtful in our deeds, there is still the reality that we as human beings tend to mess up – a lot!  As daunting as the prospect of accounting for our deeds might seem, this week I have come across a thought that strikes deeper and causes even more discomfort for me:  what if each of us were forced to watch a movie of what our life COULD have been had we not wasted time and squandered opportunity?

The movie would contain scenes of the things we could have accomplished had we not been afraid or filled with self doubt, scenes of what we could have carried out if we had made the time instead of insisting we had no time.  I imagine scenes of wild achievements had we dared to pursue our dreams, magnificent performances for Christ had we only chosen to exercise our faith.  Think of the collective good we could achieve if all of us were to determine that our movie would be an empty reel of film, because we took every opportunity that presented itself and acted on it without fear.

The encouraging and horrifying fact about all this is that it is wholly within our power to write and direct this film.  It is up to each one of us to determine what we will accomplish in this life.  Will we choose a theme of selfishness, timidity, self-doubt and the like, or will we choose a life of significance, a life that leaves this world a far better place, a life of devotion to our Creator, King and Savior?  It is within our power; we have been granted the gift of freewill and can choose each day how we shall live.  Our choices combined with the power of Christ can have an impact beyond our imagination, if we will only choose to live without fear.

We must decide each day, each hour that we will no longer live in fear.  We will focus on the things we want to accomplish for Christ and for those around us.  When your life becomes consumed by service, your dreams will change to align with those of Jesus.  We will love at any cost; we will sacrifice at every opportunity.  It’s not that we don’t have time to live a life of significance, it’s that we do not choose to do so. It’s not that we’d rather be a spectator in life, it’s just we’re too lazy to get involved.

Begin today to envision the person you want to be tomorrow, next year and five years from now.  How do you want to impact the world?  How will you serve?  How will you love?  Write it all down, read it every day.  Choose to rewrite the movie of “could have been” to the story of “what we did”.  The choice is ours and ours alone.  No one will do this for you; but you can do it for the world and for the Kingdom.

Freewill and the Wedding in Cana

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The story of Jesus turning water into wine is well known to Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s one of Jesus’ “greatest hits”, if you will. The story is found in the book of John, chapter 2, verses 1-11. It’s apparent that Jesus was achieving a bit of local celebrity already as evidenced by the inclusion of His disciples in the invitation.

Jesus showed reluctance to do anything at first, but out of deference and respect to His mother he agreed to help. I think we see incredible compassion from Jesus here. He had just told His mother that it was “not yet His time”, but he rearranged His plan to accommodate humanity. Whether out of respect for His mother or compassion for His friends in the wedding party, we don’t know. But this was the first recorded time that we catch a glimpse of this side of God’s character in Jesus. He altered His plan to allow for the freewill of humans. Obviously someone had made some poor decisions about the amount of wine at the wedding. Perhaps out of thrift or carelessness, the host had made decisions of his own freewill that led to the shortage of wine. Jesus showed the immeasurability of God by being able to alter the “plan of the moment” while leaving His overarching plan unaffected. We’re told at the end of the story that Jesus displayed His glory and the disciples believed in Him after witnessing this miracle. A question occurs to me: what was the greater miracle, the greater glory – turning water into wine or altering the plan of history without altering the result of the plan of history? Do you realize how extraordinary the power and wisdom of God is, that He allows us to have free reign in our lives and none of that impedes or affects his overarching plan for the world at large? It is truly mind blowing to try and comprehend this. The gift of freewill is a beautiful thing, topped only by the beauty of the grace He imparts to cover for us when we choose badly. How can we but worship such a God?