Whenever there’s a 5th Sunday in a month, we take a break from the regular rotation between myself, Helicon, Tim, and Dien to feature a guest writer. Since there were 5 Sundays in April, this week’s post comes to you from my good friend and younger* brother, Nathan Yee.
* He does not allow me to call him “little” for obvious reasons if you’ve ever seen us standing next to each other.
Lately I have been contemplating what it means to ‘be in God’s Will’. We always speak about and pray that we want the ‘Will of God’ to be expressed in our life and that we would co-labor in it. The question I posed to myself in studying this was:
Am I not seeing an opportunity that is right in front of me which God has placed in my life, that I ought to be pouring into?
I am reminded of Paul’s missionary work and how he had a genuine desire to go and share the Gospel to the Romans. Obviously Paul didn’t just wait and not do anything and wait for God to open a door for him to get to Rome so he could fulfill his desire. If so, the book of Acts would have looked much differently, but on the contrary what we do see is Paul actively contending for the faith everywhere God sent him. Even though Paul didn’t immediately get to Rome in the beginning of his missionary journey, he poured everything he had into what was before him. Acts 14:20 tells of Paul being stoned in Lystra and dragged out of the city presumed dead by the locals, but immediately re-enters the city which tried to kill him. We do not experience that type of persecution today, but how often do we bow out of opportunities to share the love of God when confronted with the slightest opposition? Paul could of said at that point, ‘I’ve had it with Lystra, my desire is to be in Rome and that is where I’m going.’ But Paul didn’t allow life’s circumstances and his own genuine desires to get in the way of doing what God had for him and followed faithfully.
We can have our desires for our life but the Lord will take us ultimately where He sees fit. Even when our desires are praiseworthy and for the God’s glory, it may not be what God has in store for us at the moment. We ought not to let circumstances dictate where we believe God is leading us. God has not promised us comfort and ease in following Him but the contrary ‘Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,’ 2 Timothy 3:12. Easily we fall into a trap today where the most comfortable and logical choice is sought after as God’s plan for us. We pour everything we have into obtaining this dream to where we have lost sight of what it says in Matthew 22:37 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. Lets be reminded that we are to love God for who He is rather than the blessings He gives.
I am reminded of the lyrics to ‘Give Us Clean Hands’ by Chris Tomlin, “Oh God let us be a generation that seeks, who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob”. We have an opportunity to have intimate fellowship with the one and true living God for all the days of our lives, let us not consume ourselves with the periphery.
For the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Shalom,
-Nathan
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