When I was a young, teenage Christian, one topic kept coming up: how do we know God’s will for our lives? We were told that God had the perfect plan, for our jobs, our homes, our life-partners, even what shoes to buy! The scripture ‘I know the plans I have for you’, (Jer.29:11) was taken wildly out of context, to mean that I had no choice, everything was mapped out.
In the hymn, ‘In Christ Alone’, there is the line: ‘Jesus commands my destiny’. I have a problem with this, because it makes me wonder what sort of Christ this describes, a dictator, or a loving God. God, out of his love has given us freedom of choice, our lives are not ‘commanded’, neither is our future. Our lives and our futures are as a result of our choices: whether to obey God, or not. Jesus agonized in the garden over that choice. And Jesus chose obedience. As Philippians 2 reminds us, Jesus ‘took the nature of a servant’…’by becoming obedient unto death’. It was a choice made of love for the Father.
All this is not to say that we don’t need God’s direction and the leading of the Holy Spirit. I have discovered over the years that God leading is often in subtle ways, not with command, control and intricate plans, but through a sense of peace over a decision, through the wisdom of others, and the small ‘God-instances’ that happen, together with an unquenching desire for something. Oh, and occasionally a prophetic word.
As I mentioned on Sunday, forty years ago when Richard and I were first engaged, someone had a prophetic word for us, that we would have a ministry together. This was repeated 10 years later. But over the years we wondered how this would unfold, because we ministered in separate churches. As I said, it was only a few months ago that another Baptist minister said, ‘I don’t understand why you are not in ministry together’.
God cannot lead us unless we make ourselves available, as Isaiah says, ‘Here I am, send me’ (Is 6:8). It was as we made ourselves available, asking God where He wanted us, that the series of ‘God-instances’ happened so quickly, which resulted in our being called to a joint ministry at Camberley Baptist Church. As Mike said on Sunday, ‘When God calls, be prepared to move’.
We all have different ways of discerning God’s will for our lives. But we also have free choice, we had to ask; ‘do we go, or do we stay?’ Far from our lives being set in stone, as I was taught as a young Christian, it seems that we are constantly being given new opportunities to serve our Lord and Saviour with some doors opening, and others closing. Sometimes, God’s plan takes many years before coming to fruition, but God doesn’t waste anything. It is the experience that we have gained over the last 40 years that will help in our new ministry at Camberley. 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that God is not slow in keeping his promises. Yes, He has a plan for us, a plan that involves our freedom of choice, a plan that involves our life experiences, a plan that gradually unfolds as we offer ourselves in obedience to Him. Sometimes we stand at a crossroads, all the paths look the same, but the Holy Spirit gently guides us, opening doors, and saying: ‘This is the way, walk in it’. Can we say with the hymn, ‘here I am wholly available, as for me, I will serve the Lord’?