At times I’ve wished that God would issue His directions as clearly as the military. Each time our son was deployed he got a packet of orders. I’ve often thought that I’d be much more effective if God told me exactly where and when to go, who to report to and what exactly my mission was.
One day I decided to follow that thought to its conclusion. Do I really want God to give me marching orders and then send me on my way? The reasons below outline why I’ve changed my mind.
1) God never works for just one purpose.
When He directs me to do something, it’s for my own good. But it’s also going to affect the people around me in ever-widening concentric circles. Nothing God does can ever be limited by a list.
2) God wants to grow my faith.
Faith is like a muscle, without exercise it won’t continue to grow. And I can’t exercise my faith when I know all the answers.
3) God loves to surprise us.
All throughout my life, He’s orchestrated blessings along my path. And a big part of the blessings have been the unexpectedness of them.
4) Only God can see the beginning from the end.
As I look back on the twists and turns that my life has taken I realize I haven’t had the capacity to understand what God was going to accomplish ahead of time. If He’d given me all the information at the beginning of the path, I couldn’t have followed it through to the end. I just didn’t have a mind large enough to see all the ins and outs of His purposes.
5) God works outside of time.
This is almost a continuation of number four above. But looking back, even though I live my life in a linear fashion, God is outside that timeline. He takes something from 20 years ago and uses it to move me forward today. What I thought of as a setback, turns out to be a short cut.
6) God has given us marching orders, of a type.
We have God’s written word. The Bible contains the basis of our mission here on earth. Sometimes it’s hard to ferret it out, but that’s part of the mission. We need to become more familiar with the things He’s put on paper.
So when you are like me and wish for a straight-forward word from God, take a minute to realize what a blessing it is when He doesn’t provide it.
