“Don’t strive, just rest in the Lord.”  “Just trust God, he’ll bring whatever is best for you.” “Ninety percent of life is just showing up.”  “Life is a journey—enjoy the ride.”  These are some of the things we’ve been taught over the last few decades—just lay back and everything will take care of itself, que sera, sera.  But this fatalism, these do-nothing attitudes, though they sound good aren’t supported by the Bible.  Let me be clear, I am in no way suggesting that we can earn our salvation!  However, following Jesus is intended to be active not passive!

 The New Testament urges us to seek, pursue, ask, persist, press on, run the race, run to win, have enough faith to move mountains, bother, pester, train hard, wrestle in prayer, love the Lord with everything we’ve got! It gives us as examples, a woman who pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus’ clothes so that she could be healed, a Gentile woman who wouldn’t take no for an answer to healing for her daughter, friends of a paralyzed man who took a roof off a house to get him to Jesus and blind men who wouldn’t shut up until they got Jesus’ attention!  Jesus gave us parables of a woman who searched relentlessly for her lost coin, a shepherd who wasn’t satisfied with just 99 but had to pursue the lost one, a man who knocked and knocked–bugging the daylights out of his neighbor until he got the bread he needed and a widow who bothered an unrighteous judge so much that he gave in before she drove him crazy—can’t you just see his eyes rolling?

We’ve gotten confused along the way and thought we weren’t supposed to run after things in the Kingdom but what Jesus said don’t run after food and drink and clothes because pagans run after those. But somehow we think we’re supposed to run after jobs, education, careers, money…

We Christians are always wondering, ”What is God’s will for my life?”  Many books and workshops are eagerly sought in this mysterious quest.  We think, “I just know the answer is out there somewhere, if only I could find the right formula…” Some tell us to follow our dreams while others say, “Do what you’re good at” and still others say that you never quite know because God may change it minute by minute.  But God isn’t capricious–constantly changing nor is he holding out on you, keeping some big secret from you.  In fact, he so much wants you to know what he wants for your life that he had it written down for you even before you were born!

As I once wrote to a young friend, God doesn’t have a different will for each person, his will for all of us is written in the Bible (with an emphasis on the New Testament).  Of course, there are details that will vary such as timing and location, etc.  I’m in no way dismissing the leading of the Holy Spirit!  But the first place the Holy Spirit will lead you is to that which has already been said.  Do you remember your mother ever saying, “Now what did I already tell you?”

One question that comes up among young people and increasingly among the not so young is, “Am I ‘called’ to missions?”  The answer is simple—yes.

Jesus said,” Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” Matthew 28:19

Every Christian is called by Jesus to take the good news of his kingdom to the nations though the nations or “people groups” may very well be in your city.  Your role may be to help someone else travel, supporting them in (fervent!) prayer and finances until you can take a more active role.

What field should I work/major in?  Which job should I aim for?” are two other questions that confront most of us at an increasingly earlier age.  Your number one calling as a follower of Jesus is to be a disciple of Jesus who makes other disciples (this certainly includes worshiping him) so your primary concern should be in taking a job that doesn’t so fill your time that there’s no time left for following Jesus in every way, and gathering with other believers (this does not necessarily mean committee meetings!).  You already know from Scripture without having to wonder (I hope!) that it should also be work that honors God and doesn’t dishonor him.  There is an old teaching that all work a Christian does honors God—sorry, there’s no way that being a stripper or a manufacturer of products that harm people will ever honor God.

These are just a couple of the questions many of us have about God’s will for our lives.  I’ve only skimmed the surface, but my aim is to send you back to God’s Word to get the foundational knowledge of his will—you may be surprised at how many of the details fall into place once you do.

The reason that we’re not to resist an evil person (Matthew 5:39), I’m discovering, is that we’re to instead, resist the devil (James 4:7).  Resisting a person is like chopping the top off a weed–it will only come back.  But if we pull up the root of the matter–the devil, we’ll have lasting success. People are redeemable; the devil isn’t.

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. Matthew 5:39

Have you ever heard someone exclaim (or write), “I was cut to the heart by what I read in that Scripture?” If you’re like me, it’s been a very long time since you have. In the last several years, people I’ve encountered have been more likely to instead say, “God is teaching me so much through this sickness that I wouldn’t have learned any other way. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.“ John 15:1-3

Since the Greek words for “prune” and “clean” come from the same root, Jesus was saying that his word had pruned them already and they apparently didn’t need any other. If we stay in the Word (continually reading the New Testament and making the teachings our way of life) we won’t need any other kind* of “pruning” either. Sure, the Lord uses every situation turning what the devil meant for evil, into good (Romans 8:28) but it’s so much better and easier to let the Holy Spirit convict and teach you through the Word of God.

*Persecution for Jesus’ name sake is the Biblical context for the kind of trial that God uses for chastening us and building character.

Once, a store manager told me that an item I had always found there was no longer stocked but she encouraged me to “keep checking because everything old is new again.”  I was amused since my first thought was, “That means me!”  Many old things (and people!) are still good and don’t need to be replaced just because something newer, flashier or more technologically up to date comes along.  My grandmother’s cheese grater still grates and print books still yield their knowledge and stories.

However, bringing some old things forward is not only inappropriate but can be harmful, as when Christians try to put other Christians “under the Law.”  Of course, I’m referring to the Mosaic Law given to Moses by God, for the Jews.  Even a rabbi told me that Jewish people are the only ones who God expects to follow the Law.  But for all who follow Jesus, the Law was fulfilled  (completed, finished) by his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead! (Romans 10:4) and we are “not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).  Yet, Christians often still insist on requiring each other (sometimes even themselves) to be “under the Law” in various forms.  Some insist on the Ten Commandments, others on tithing and still others that God punishes sins “to the third and fourth generations.”

The apostle Paul severely chastised the Galatians for following teachings that put them under the Law.  He called it, “deserting the one who called you” (Galatians 1:6) “turning to a different gospel, which is no gospel at all” (Galatians 1:7-9).  Paul quoted the Law itself in saying that anyone who relied on the Law was under a curse for not keeping the entire Law—all 613 parts! (Galatians 3:10)  Strong words!  But they’re not mine.  They’re the Word of God.  God is very serious about grace—it cost Jesus a lot.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

Childhood books urged me, “If you believe hard enough, whatever you wish for will come true!”  Oh, how I wanted it to be so but there was always an adult around to assure me of what I had already sensed, that it just wasn’t true.  Later as a teen I discovered that “faith can move mountains” and began to pray in faith and received amazing answers.  I learned though that faith and belief, unlike “wishing upon a star,” worked only on those things that God had promised in his word.

Sola scriptura, scripture alone, was Martin Luther’s insistence that all authority for a Christian’s life was based not on what some religious leader found advantageous, not on tradition but only on the Word of God—the Bible.  Today, people tell me, “Well, I believe …,” fill in the blank with whatever they’ve been taught by “someone I respect”—therefore it must be true, without taking time to be like the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). Paul wasn’t threatened by people searching the Bible for themselves, so why do Christian teachers feel threatened today?  Or perhaps the person believes something because it’s convenient, allowing them to do what they want to do.

Just believing something, anything does not make it so.  Exercising faith in God, based on his word already expressed in the Bible does!

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, `Move from here to there  and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20

Let’s move those mountains of sickness, poverty, evil and unbelief!  Anyone game?

My Buddhist friend says, “You have to have “darkness” (or evil) in order to appreciate the “light’.”

My college creative writing teacher who wanted nothing to do with God said, ‘You can’t only write “light,” you have to write mostly “darkness” in order for the ”light” to shine brighter.’

My artist friend whose husband described them as “born-again pagans” insisted that I must paint more “darks” in my paintings (I’m a visual artist) in order for the “lights” to “pop” (stand out).

Curiously, I’ve heard much the same thing from many church friends, “You have to have “darkness” in order for the candle to shine brighter.”

The Bible disagrees.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” (John 8:12) and John later wrote, God is light; in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).

The Buddhists with their “yin and yang”, see dark and light, evil and good as equals to be balanced (incidentally, they put female on the same side as evil) but Solomon pointed out that light is better than darkness (Ecclesiastes 2:13). Jesus came to dispel darkness–not balance it!

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 1John 3:8

In creative writing class, I made it my goal to prove that I could write about “light” more than “darkness”.  I simply couldn’t dwell on darkness because as Paul said to the Thessalonians,

“You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5).

Perhaps my artist friend gave up on me since I kept insisting that my paintings are about light, that there is plenty of darkness in this world already—I don’t need to add to it! As Paul exhorted the Ephesians, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light  (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5:8-11)

Physical science would probably refute my church friends’ candle philosophy but psychology would likely agree with their perception.  But we followers of Jesus need to be concerned with what is true, not what seems.  Many who are called by Jesus’ name (so many that it’s epidemic), believe wholeheartedly that God makes them sick or puts other evil things in their lives (one person even said that God makes people sin!) in order to “teach them something” or ‘bring them closer to him!” (see Matthew 7: 9-11)  But the Bible continually speaks of Jesus bringing us out of darkness and into the light! (1 John 1:6; 2 Corinthians 4:4,6; Colossians 1:12,13; Isaiah 5:20)

We so often hear, “It’s not about rules and regulations; it’s about relationship, about loving Jesus”

Yes. And no.

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. John 14:21

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  Matthew 28:19,20

Loving Jesus isn’t only about raising your arms in worship but also about keeping his commands.  Wait a minute, you say, I thought you were adamant about not putting Christians under the Law.  That’s right!  The Lord doesn’t want us under Moses’ Law which was against us (Colossians 2:13-15) but under the “law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:1,2).

You can’t be someone’s follower and not do what they say.

Most of us who are called by Jesus’ name are quick to insist, “It’s all about Jesus!”  But do we truly believe what he said?  Do we truly believe that he meant it for us?  Are we doing it?

Are we loving our enemies and blessing them? Or are we dehumanizing them with labels and derision? Matthew 5:43-48

Are we storing up treasures in heaven? Or are we storing them up on the earth where they’ll rot? Matthew 19:21

Do we really believe Jesus’ statement that adultery is the only reason for divorce?  Or are we saying, “God wants me to be happy?” Matthew 5:32

These are just a few examples.  Following Jesus was never meant to be easy, (freeing yes, burden light…) after all it’s a narrow road but it’s the road that leads to life.