Living in God’s Leading
When I used to be 4, I got here home from Sunday school and asked my mother how someone got to be within the Bible because I wanted in! She was reasonably shocked by her little daughter’s heretical request to change Scripture and told me so. What my child’s heart couldn’t put into words was that I desired to be a part of God’s plan, similar to the people within the Bible! I desired to see God work in my life desperately!
Thankfully, we do not need a special calling to be just as much a part of God’s plan because the individuals within the Bible. We also needn’t enact any heretical plans to weasel our way into His Holy Word to see His Word come alive in our lives!
Here are five general heart and life issues we are able to anchor in God’s Word to experience His plans for our lives.
1. Faith in God’s Word
In Genesis 12:1-7 we read in regards to the Lord giving Abraham some pretty unique instructions – go forth to a land, and I’ll bless you. God directed Abraham to maneuver but didn’t tell him exactly where. Later in his life, God would proceed to disclose blessings He had in store for Abraham, but He didn’t share the precise details of how or when these blessings would unfold. We read that Abraham’s belief in God’s guarantees to him was righteous in God’s sight.
If we were to use the experience of our spiritual founding Father’s faith to our own faith journey, we’d see that God is pleased once we consider His words. We would see that belief in God is step one in walking with the Lord.
Paul echoes this passage from the Old Testament in Romans when he writes: For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:3
Later Paul reminds us that walking with God means, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Is there something in your life you’ve got been seeing with eyes of doubt over God’s goodness? Is there a Scriptural instruction you have not been acting on with faith? Prayerfully consider the places in your life that need a fresh washing of religion and lift them to the Lord. No matter what number of years I walk with my Lord, there’s all the time something I would like at hand over to Him with purer, more devoted faith.
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2. Fear and Reverence of God’s Sovereign Power
Psalms 86:11 says:
Teach me Your way, O LORD; I’ll walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
Another considered one of those foundational qualities that aligns our life with God’s desire for us is reverence for Him. Scripture most frequently uses the word “fear” to explain the respect we should have for God. Many of us struggle to grasp why or how God would want us to fear Him because most of us don’t desire anyone to be afraid of us. In our modern context, we do not distinguish “fearing” someone from being “afraid” of somebody. From the remainder of Scripture, we are able to see that God is not satisfied with a faith that expects punishment and wrath from Him (Hebrews 11:6), so there’s something different in our understanding of the fear God is talking about.
I’ve heard numerous Bible teachers weigh in on this topic of fearing God. Some say our fear of God is like the way in which you could be afraid to offend or disappoint someone you like. I’ve heard others say the fear of God is a present because if we only care about His approval of our lives, it removes all the opposite fears of this life from us. And I’ve heard some say there’s nothing unsuitable in fearing punishment on your wrongdoings.
The word for fear in Hebrew, “yare,” is translated as not only fear/being afraid, but in addition reverence/revere, and awesome/to face in awe. Sometimes, English doesn’t capture the nuance of one other language’s details. In English, I can love my cat, tacos, and my husband. But other languages, like Spanish or Greek, use a definite word for every sort of “love,” so one doesn’t make tacos and husbands sound like they receive the identical level of adoration.
Sometimes, fearing God’s punishment has indeed helped me walk closer to Him. More days, standing in awe of Him keeps me near Him. My all-too-often tendency to set other people or pressures on the throne of my heart is answered by searching for God’s approval alone. Fearing God can work all these blessings into our lives. As I walk more days with Him, I do know I’ll learn more about His heart for this idea. But I do know fearing God doesn’t should be a thing that ties us up in knots; actually, it shouldn’t. Perhaps all of us have room to grow in our understanding of how God means this to shape our lives, but we are able to know for certain it was meant for our freedom and good.
3. Face-Down Living
He has told you, O man, what is nice; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to like kindness, and to walk humbly together with your God? Micah 6:8
But He gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, “God is against the proud, but gives grace to the standard.” James 4:6
Humility is not a flashy topic. But it’s a obligatory ingredient in our faith journeys. It’s how we stay connected to our Lord so we are able to walk with Him through this life. It’s a conduit of grace in our lives.
Whenever or wherever I find myself battling a way that I deserve or am owed something, it is usually time to envision my heart about humility and pride. If I ever find myself expecting high marks of respect or compliments, it is also time to take stock of what is occurring inside my soul. Sometimes, a selected circumstance stirs this attitude in me, after which it is smart for me to alter how I engage with that situation. Like gravity that holds our feet to the bottom, humility ties our feet to God’s ways, and without humility, we are able to make certain we can’t be walking out His best plans for us.
4. Freedom from Sin
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Therefore we’ve been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we’ve change into united with Him within the likeness of His death, actually we will even be within the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, so that our body of sin is perhaps done away with, in order that we’d now not be slaves to sin; for he who has died is free of sin. Romans 6:4-7
Jesus went to the ends of the Earth to free you and me from the implications of our sin but in addition to free us from the grip sin has on our day by day experience. One of the central purposes of Christ coming to Earth was freedom – yours and mine, personally, deeply, truly. Freedom from sin is not meant to be just something we experience in heaven. It’s meant for our day by day living right away.
This path looks different for all of us. I listened to testimonies for years of what I call “one-night-make-overs,” where God released an individual from addiction in a single night and altered their life perpetually. I really like those testimonies! They are the Cinderella stories of Christian testimonies! My testimony has been loads less fast. I used to wonder why God didn’t work in my life with those exciting “one-night-make-overs.” I used to think perhaps He reserved those transformations for His really special and called children, and I just wasn’t considered one of them. Sometimes, I wondered if He cared about my struggle and if He could see me. Over time, I spotted God just worked a little bit in a different way in each of our lives. God has often called me to “walk around Jericho” in faith and trust Him through my struggles until He makes the partitions fall down in His perfect timing. His work comes seemingly slower in my experience, however it has forced me to walk nearer Him, slow my pace, watch, and learn more intently than if He had blessed me with a fast transformation.
Regardless of how God works in your life, your freedom is paramount to Him! If it looks as if He is not working freedom into your life in the meanwhile, rest assured He is – the timing or fashion just is perhaps different than what you expect.
If there’s something you recognize results in bound-up living (a relationship that tempts you, a source of knowledge like social media, TV, music, novels, the web that tempts you away from following God’s ways – anything like that), cut it out! Cement your selections and deal with the Lord’s Word and his ways as best as you may. He will come and deliver you from the things which are “larger than life,” but within the meantime, don’t lose heart at His timetable; hold tight to your precious faith with all of your heart and all of your might. He cares deeply about your freedom!
5. Fullness
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I got here that they might have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10
These things I actually have spoken to you in order that My joy could also be in you, and that your joy could also be made full. John 15:11
These things I actually have spoken to you, in order that in Me you will have peace. In the world you have got tribulation, but take courage; I actually have overcome the world. John 16:33
After freedom from sin, Jesus’ primary goal in coming to dwell amongst us was the fullness of spirit for every of us. He cares about our abundance of souls. He wants peace and joy to reign in our hearts. He wants HIS joy inside us!
There have been times in my ministry experience where the query “What does God want for my life?” would have been quickly answered with a listing of New Testament commands. And while it is not an incorrect answer, I believe it is not the entire answer. Yes! God wants a lifetime of following and discipleship from and for us. Yes! Obedience brings joy and peace in ways we won’t imagine before stepping onto the trail of obedience. But beyond all of the doing and activity, there’s an easy, quiet, intimate space of “being” in Christ that’s best sought before all of the motion.
Being joyful in Christ, peaceful in Christ, and whole and abundant in Him alone is extremely necessary to the remainder of our actions to hunt His kingdom first. My walk with God has all the time been much less troubled once I pursued the foundational perspective that comes once I seek my identity and satisfaction from Christ before I set my hand to a single task. Otherwise, I all the time find yourself messing up the duty, or the duty messes up me! This fullness of heart is an anchor for all our other spiritual activities and pursuits.
For this reason also, because the day we heard of it, we’ve not ceased to hope for you and to ask that chances are you’ll be crammed with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you’re going to walk in a way worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing within the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, in line with His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving due to the Father, who has qualified us to share within the inheritance of the saints in Light. Colossians 1:9-12
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April Motl is a pastor’s wife, homeschool mom, and girls’s ministry director. When she’s not waist-deep in the fun and jobs of motherhood, being a wife, and serving at church, she writes and teaches for ladies. You can find more encouraging resources from April here and here.Â
