The Jen Young

“God, tell me what to do!”  Ever prayed that prayer?  I know I have.

Especially when facing important decisions, I want to hear from God on the right thing to do.  I’m always very generous about it to the Lord, of course… I tell God how it doesn’t matter HOW he tells me, whether a scripture, a sign, a prophetic word, a song on the radio, the message the pastor preaches, the message from a commercial for crying out loud… I’m very flexible as long as God speaks, right?

Life just doesn’t always work that way, though.  Sometimes we just don’t have a clear leading or specific direction from the Lord.  It’s in those times the temptation is then to do nothing.  To  make it seem spiritual, we’ll say we’re “waiting on God,” but most of the time we’re just too chicken to make a move for fear of being wrong.   Waiting for the neon sign with the detailed directions doesn’t exempt us from moving forward in life, though.

In the absence of specific word or direction from God on a matter, we must always look to the principles of God and act accordingly.

So often we are looking for God to talk to us about something, and He has already told us His will on the matter in His Word.   We’re waiting on Him to speak, and He’s waiting on us to act on what He has already said!

What job should I take?  Where should I live? What church should I join? We can get so hung up on the specifics that we forget God has spoken abundantly about the topic in general already.   It probably doesn’t matter whether you work at Company A or Company B… but it does matter if you are diligent, faithful, honest, a blessing to your leaders, and do everything as if unto the Lord.  If God hasn’t told you which job to take, then just pick one, and then do it with all your heart and with integrity that glorifies Him!

I’ll take the ‘joining a church” example, since I am facing that situation right now:  After eleven years with my last church, I found myself having to find a new church home.  I could have visited a different church each week until God said “join this one.”  Or, I could have gone to NO churches until God told me which one was “His plan for me.”    In the absence of a specific word about it, I had to just act on the principles of God.  The Word says we’re not to forsake the assembling of ourselves, so not going until I knew which church to go to was out.  We are to be planted in the Lord’s house and to know those who labor among us, so bouncing from church to church to church indefinitely was out, too.

To be honest, after several months I still don’t have specific leading from the Lord that the church I’m in now is the church I’m ’supposed’ to join.  I’m in agreement with the fundamental doctrine and vision, and could see myself plugged in and growing… and I could just as easily see myself doing the same at a church down the street, too.  But in the absence of a specific word about it, I am obeying the principles of the Word and moving forward in increasing commitment, relationships, service, etc., that I may obey what God has already said all members of the Body of Christ ought to do.  At this point, unless the Lord intervenes with other directions, I will be joining.

Ultimately, we are accountable to the Lord for our obedience to His Word.  He can always adjust us on the specifics if we need it, but we can never go wrong simply living according to His principles in all that we do.

What principles can you stand on for your situation?

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Spiritual Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.