The Spirit and Will of God; Romans 8:25-28
It’s 11:00am Friday, and I’m calling an audible, which usually is a bad idea this close to Sunday! Instead of continuing this weekend in our series through the Gospel of Mark, I’m going to try and explain in more detail what’s happening around here as we are in the early stages of looking for an additional minister or ministers to help us in God’s ongoing work at Manchester. One thing is clear: we have far more questions than answers at this point, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s exactly where we should be.
Far too often in our lives we think we know enough to lace up our shoes and take off running toward where we think we need to go. And many of us can think of times when we’ve done that only to later have regrets. As it is written in Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (ESV). If we don’t commit ourselves to consulting God, we end up leaning too much on our own understanding, and as finite people, we just cannot see far enough down the road to figure things out on our own.
Sure, we can make decisions by ourselves all day long, and maybe we experience what we could call success as an outcome of things we decide all by ourselves, but that’s not good enough when we’re doing God’s business. Only God knows the specific service he has in mind for his people, so we have to seek the guidance of His Spirit if we’re going to be faithful in all things. How, then, do we do that? How might we know when we’re being guided by God as opposed to our so-called wisdom and insight? Is there a way for us to be more confident in the plans we devise as we walk with Christ?
0 Comments