Tossing up Questions

Often times people ask the spiraling questions: "How do I know what God is calling me to do?" or "How do I know the will of God?" Having questions about God and his will for our lives is not bad. In fact, it's actually beautiful. Asking these two driving questions is evidence that your heart wants to know the God of the universe more and what he has planned for you. Noah and I have asked and studied these questions a lot together and separately; also, my bible study group has frequent conversations about these questions. So, how do we answer them?

In order to answer these common questions, we have to first make sure we have a personal relationship with God. If we do not have a personal relationship with Him, there is no way to know the depth of what he has planned for us. The first part of having a personal relationship with God is understanding salvation and accepting Jesus into our hearts. This is the gospel. In The Bible, John 3:16 states:

"For God SO LOVED the world

that he gave his one and only SON,

that whosoever BELIEVES in him

shall not perish but have ETERNAL LIFE."

We are all born sinners naturally, but God loved the world (us) so much that he made a way so that we can have eternal life with Him through his Son. If we choose Him, we are lavished in His love and redemption and we have the beautiful opportunity to have a deep, intimate, relationship with almighty God. As we pursue Christ after salvation, we become more and more aware of the plan he has for us.

Another part of understanding God's will after we come to know Him, is seeking Him through His word. The Bible is living and breathing truth and as we read it, God reveals Himself to us. When I was in high school, we memorized scripture in my Bible classes. Of course I didn't memorize them with the idea of keeping them in my daily heart and life, but now it means so much to memorize Scripture. I would always write them on paper or skim over them right before the test. I left one of the small papers I studied from for a test in my jeep, even after I graduated. I always liked the words it had in it. I had never really studied it, but I knew it was a beautiful passage so I kept it in my jeep. It has been over a year now since I graduated. The first time I ever dug into the passage was laying in Noah's grandparents backyard this past summer. As I read through Ephesians one, I came upon verses 7-10 and I knew those were the verses in my jeep.

Ephesians 1:7-10 NIV

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ."

The words are beautiful but they are so much deeper than just words. And once I read them in context I saw more of the beauty and purpose in them.

Ephesians 1:3-10 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ."

Through these verses I began to personally see that Christ chose me before I had the choice to choose him. Christ chose me even when He knew I wouldn't choose Him. Christ had a PERFECT PLAN and WILL for me before I was even created. Christ made a way through his Son for me to have the option to choose Him again. I am called to be holy and blameless, but that is only through His son that He gave up freely. God's grace for me is rich and if I accept Him he lavishes it on me. Once we know Him and are blamelessly seeking Him in his grace He "makes known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure." God's will is a mystery and I can't know it all in one quiet time, but I can know that through wisdom and understanding from His word, and prayer He will make known to me His will for my life in His time not mine. It is also so important to note that my purpose is in Christ. If I don't know my purpose, then trying to figure out what God's will for my life is will be impossible. And finally, we have hope that all will be fulfilled and all things will be unified in the right time, His time.

I began to see that this passage of scripture is a beautiful example of how to know the will of God and his plan for me.

God doesn't call us to run around trying things out until we "feel" like it is what God wants. God calls us to seek Him each day and each moment even when it feels like we don't know how. When we don't know how or what the plan is, we should just stop and thank God, because when we are unsure, it is an opportunity to rely on God. The world sets many standards for how to do plans and how to move into new things and what this kind of person should do and la la la. Many books fill shelves on planning and being successful and lots of the principles sound like it will work out nicely if you follow the plan and maybe it would, but I can tell you right now if you are not following God's plan and will for your life you will not have true purpose and you will always be looking for true purpose in all kinds of places. This is how people lose sight of the beautiful things God brings into their lives.

This incredible human in this picture above is a plan God has has for me that I do not deserve. As I seek the Lord he shows me how to love him and how we can pursue God's plan for us together. If I were to seek after the things of this world and what the world says I should be I wouldn't know how to love Noah. I would lose sight of the Lord and then of who Noah truly is. I have to truly live out Ephesians 1 in order to cherish Noah. If I am out of God's will, I will lose sight of the things that are in God's will. Things that are in God's will are rich and enduring, things out of God's will are dark and empty. Now when I say rich I don't mean happy, I mean full of God's contentment and peace.

These pictures are of the last sunset Noah and I watched together before he went off to school this semester. Now if you think that this period in our lives is always happy then you are wrong. We have the opportunity to see joy in it but it is very hard. As God plan has and will be revealed through this time in our lives, we see Him lay out plans, close doors, and open doors. But most importantly we are learning to trust Him more and more and draw near to Him. Sometimes, you just have to know that God knows what He's doing. I like to tell myself, "if this is God's plan, I don't want anything else." No matter what, if something is God's plan,I want it because I know that I will truly be living. So, just in case you are wondering, Noah and I are #LIVINGOURBESTLIFE anytime we are both seeking the Lord and pursuing his will.

So next time you feel like tossing up these questions, toss them at God.

Spend intimate time with him in prayer and dig in His Word until you find the peace that only He can bring.

No worries..just trust and know that he's God. Only He can make it "well with our soul."