Seeking God for Direction – Day 6

Theme: Seeking God for Direction

(Based on Joshua and the Battle of Jericho)

Saturday, January 30 – Day 6

PUT HIM FIRST – NOT MY WILL, LORD, BUT YOURS: Prov. 16:1-3(NLT); Psa. 143:10 (SESSION 11)

One could be forgiven for thinking: Why wasn’t this the first topic in our week of Fasting? I guess we may not find the answer until we get to heaven. One thing is for certain – God has established His place in the scheme of all things. He will never be second to anyone or anything. We must put Him first. We desire to be led by Him. That means He must be at the front of the parade. We desire to be directed on what path to take on our journey. We must consult Him, listen to Him, move when He bids us to do so and stand still when He is still. None of that is easy, but if we have learnt anything from this fasting, it is that our opinions of God’s methods do not matter. He does things His way.  

Looked at through a different lens, we humans like to be in control. Losing control makes us feel insufficient, ineffective, powerless. The irony is that Jesus cannot lead or direct us if we are at the controls, so as we wind down this series of fasting, we must determine daily (hourly) to consciously hand back the control of our lives to our Master Planner. We must declare, not with our lips only, but with our actions, “Not my will, Lord, but Yours”. Some of us have spent years making plans for one thing or another. Our plans are well put together. From our viewpoint, they may even be grandiose, but when we listen to the still small voice of God, we know that is not the way He wants us to go. Will we ‘give over’ control to Him or will we stubbornly decide that we have invested too much time and effort into this or that plan to stop now? The Bible is full of stories of people who thought they had a perfect plan for their own lives; people who even seemed to be successfully executing those plans; people who fought with every fiber of their beings to resist God’s plan. All of them discovered sooner or later that losing control, giving over their will to the Father’s will was the secret to success. Having been met by Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul declared “it is hard to kick against the pricks”.                                                                                                                         Yes, putting God first means giving up the controls of our lives. It means doing things ‘His way’ even when we think our way is great. It means declaring with all our hearts and souls “Not my will, Lord, but Yours”. Can we do it? Not unless we put our complete trust and confidence in Him. Will we do it? Will we be determined to make it the theme of our future?

BACK TO THE STARTING POINT: I Tim. 4:10; Phil. 3:13, 14 (SESSION 12)

God loves to do astounding things. Most of the time, they are in response to the prayers of His people. We have spent this week looking at the way God directed Joshua and asking Him for direction in our lives. We know that He has the blueprint plan of our lives written in the palm of His hand. “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me” (Isaiah 49:16).

God our Heavenly Father, loving Counselor, peace-giving Friend, and gentle Shepherd has the plan that will completely transform our lives, that will blow our minds with its grandeur. However, we must be prayerfully attentive to the direction He has for us. We must discern the path He has chosen for us from the one we have chosen for ourselves. When we follow God’s will and live according to His divine plan, our perspective shifts. Our vision expands and we begin to look at life not in terms of what we can do, but what God can do through us. We soon realize that nothing can distract, destroy, discourage, disappoint, or defeat us when we follow God’s direction.
As we approach the end of our week of fasting, let us beware of distractions. Distractions cause most of us to get lost along the way. We start out to accomplish our purpose, then some other good thing comes along and before we know it, we have taken a left turn, landed just a few degrees off target, and lost the goal completely. But when we keep God’s purpose in mind, we are empowered by the Spirit of God to accomplish it.
If we will live according to God’s plan, not only can nothing distract us, but neither will anything be able to destroy us. Isn’t that exciting? Jesus did not fear destruction because He was on target with His plan. He knew what God had prepared for Him and He lived in the confidence and the courage of that understanding without discouragement.
It is often easy to get discouraged. However, when we focus on God’s direction as it is laid before us, we can overcome the urge to flee His plan. By doing so, we won’t be disappointed and consequently, by living according to God’s plan we will not be defeated.
Let us “lock on” to the goal and purpose that God has for our lives. It takes fervent prayer and a desire to accept His will, whatever direction that may take; to begin to see His direction. Moving forward, we will consistently ask God for His direction in our lives. As He shows the path for us to follow, we will trust Him and His plan with all our hearts. Let us charge down that path with strong determination. Pursue His will with a passion. If we don’t know it already, we will discover that there is no more fulfilling, peaceful, and thankful place to be in this life than soundly in the center of God’s will.