A New Way of Thinking

It's been awhile since I have written on our blog and that is mostly because my original intent for it began to backfire when I realized how effective it really was at keeping everyone updated on how and what we were doing, while leaving us in the dark about how all of you are doing.  So I have neglected it simply because I missed the one-on-one interaction that it replaced.  Tonight I've decided to write something because as I was reading, I found something I felt was worth sharing...  A way of thinking about life that is new to me and has profoundly impacted me.

I'm reading a book called, "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan.  He also wrote "Crazy Love", which is an excellent book I would recommend everyone read.  I want to share an excerpt from the book "Forgotten God":
-----------
Forget About His Will for Your Life!

And to expose our hearts to truth and consistently refuse or neglect to obey the impulses it arouses is to stymie the motions of life within us and, if persisted in, to grieve the Holy Spirit into silence.

-A.W. Tozer-

How many times have you heard someone say, "I just wish I knew God's will for my life"? I know I've longed for this before. But now I see it is a misguided way of thinking and talking.

There are very few people in the Scriptures who received their life plan from God in advance (or even their five-year plan, for that matter!). Consider Abraham, who was told to pack up his family and all his possessions and start walking. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know if he would ever be back. He didn't know any details we consider vital (e.g., his destination, how long the venture would take, what costs/rewards would be, whether he'd receive a 401(k) or health insurance). God said to go and he went, and that's pretty much all he knew.

I think a lot of us need to forget about God's will for my life. God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year.  In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today's decisions.

It is easy to use the phrase "God's will for my life" as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. It's much less demanding to think about God's will for your future than it is to ask Him what He wants you to do in the next ten minutes.  It's safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day.
-----------
Just the title of this chapter made me go, "huh?"  Forget about God's will for my life?  Is that what he meant to say??  But as I read on, I realized that this concept God's will for my life might actually be one of those things taught in Christianity that has been widely accepted because it sounds good and makes sense, but in all actuality is not totally Biblical.  God wants us to seek Him for His will for this moment, every moment of life.

That last paragraph was especially convicting to me. "It's safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day." How often do I think about the future!  Have you ever wondered what life would be like if we didn't have the ability to think about the past or the future, only the present?  Of course that ability is a gift from God, but how much easier would it be to heal, to obey, to trust, if all we thought about was the present?  The irony of it, is that in this life, the present is really all we have for sure, right?  Why do we spend so much time thinking about the future?  I think it would be a fair and honest statement for me to say that often I live in the future rather than in the present... My thoughts and decisions are frequently based off of my prediction of how they will affect the future.  In all reality, God has already decided the future, so how wise is that?  How mind blowing to realize just how inadequately I actually follow the Holy Spirit's leading in my life.  What would life look like if I could actually learn to submit every moment of my day, every thought, every decision, to the will of the Spirit?  Perhaps I would worry less, be tired less, and love more.  Now I think about how this new way of thinking would change my life, but what if every Christian could live this way?  How would the world change?

I have a lot to think about... I hope this has given you much to think about as well!