Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
King
Asa, the third king of the nation of Judah, faced two major military crises
during his 41-year reign. In both cases, his forces were far inferior to his
enemy. In the first war Asa faced, he consulted God, and although his army was
much smaller, he won the battle and Asa carried out God’s plan. Because of
their commitment to God, He gave the Nation of Judah peace on all borders for
the next 20 years. In the second crisis, King Asa faced, Asa, did not consult
God but relied on his diplomatic skills. He allied himself with the leader of
another country God had plans to destroy. Asa won the war in this case, but
God’s plans were not carried out. God sent the prophet Hanani to tell King Asa
that because he had not consulted God, the rest of his reign would be marked
with war. (1 Kings 15:10-24; 2 Chronicles 14–16).
God
has a general will for our lives, sometimes referred to as God’s Proclaimed
Will. His Holy Word is for all humankind to understand who God is and His will
is for all His Children. The key to understanding God’s Proclaimed will for our
lives is a totally surrendered heart, sold out to the Lord and ready to go
wherever He wants us to go and do whatever He wants us to do. Once we
understand what He reveals to us as his children, we must follow these
precepts. We must come out from the world and be a living sacrifice to God.
Accept the new heart He is offering us, turn our backs on the old life and the
old self, and be the new person God wills.
God also has a Specific Will for every one of His children. This Specific Will is not revealed in the Bible but is a unique exclusive path He wants each believer in Christ to walk. This Specific Will becomes more evident the more we are living His Proclaimed Will. An old Christian song says: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.” These words are so true; to know the paths God wills us to follow, we must turn our eyes away from the fame and fortune the world has to offer and turn them towards Jesus. Like Peter walking on water, when we turn away from Jesus, we will most certainly begin to sink.
Sometimes we see our lives going in a particular direction, and we develop blinders to anything other than our grand plans. Then we assume our objective must be in the correct order because we are trying to do God’s work. We do this without consulting God for the right path; we want God to rubber stamp our plans; after all, we are doing His work. The words are accurate from the gospel song, “Keep me in Your Will,” written by Melissa Jo Elliot: “my mistakes at times disturb all the plans you’ve made, Lord keep me in your will, so I don’t get in your way.” Focusing on what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do will cause us to get in His way, and like King Asa, we might have to live with the consequences of defeat for the rest of our lives. So instead of experiencing a life of victory God has planned for us, we live a defeated life.
God
has a beautiful plan that we can only see when we are looking at Him and not
trying to look at the world simultaneously. Whether we fulfill his intent
depends on whether we trust him or try to solve our problems without consulting
him and His Holy Word.
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