Series: "Ask Me Anything"
Devotional - "What Is God's Will For My Life?"
"Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts..." - Hebrews 3:7-8
, NLT
I’ve heard the question so many times it’s beginning to lose its meaning: “What is God’s will for my life?” I’ve asked it. My friends have all asked it. I’m pretty sure you’ve asked it. And why not? Who doesn’t want to know God’s plan for their life?
But I’m starting to realize I may be getting ahead of God. Lately, I’ve been trading that question in for a new one: “God, what is your life for my will?”
It may not seem like a big change for you, but it changes everything for me.
It’s because I like making smoothies.
Let me explain.
I have four daughters and they hate nutrients in their food. I’m serious. If it were up to them, they’d eat nothing but french fries and Fun Dip and would slip into a sugar-induced coma in three days’ time. But praise the Lord, I found an exception. They love smoothies. Now I can load chocolate smoothies with plenty of nutrient-dense healthy fats and superfoods that their immature taste buds will not even detect.
One morning a few months ago, I was up early preparing said smoothies when my nine-year-old daughter came down the stairs and asked if she could help. I handed her the tub of spinach and told her to throw some in. However, I completely forgot about the avocado I was forking in just moments before. When she interrupted me, I dropped the avocado and the utensil into the four hundred horsepower supercharged Vitamix Blender my wife had bought me in case I ever needed to incinerate a pair of shoes. So, my daughter throws in the spinach and I forget all about the fork, and we keep tossing ingredients in and hit the power switch.
We almost jumped through the roof. Sparks flew. Smoke filled the kitchen. The fork rattled around like an angry cobra in a cage while the lights flickered maniacally overhead. Suddenly, the fork burst out the side of the blender and smoothie sprayed all over the entire house. In fact, I was still finding smoothie on the ceiling months later.
Okay, Mike. What on earth is the point?
The point is this.
Some of us are so transfixed with the future and what God will do for us that we are totally missing what God wants to do in us right now. Did you notice the switch? In, not for. Notice Hebrews 3 says “Today, if you hear his voice.” Today! Right now!
So much of my life I’ve been obsessed with all the ingredients I need for a successful career, while God is simply whispering to me, “Hey, can we get that fork of bitterness out of your heart? I know you want to be successful, but what about that fork of ingratitude or maybe that spoon of greed?”
You see, when we stop asking God’s big plan for our lives and start asking what His will is for our lives right now, we just might find that all He needs us to do is listen to what He’s asking of us in this present moment. Besides, if we don’t let Him get the fork out now, it won’t matter what else we throw in or how good we make our lives look. Eventually, it’s going to come out sideways.
*Mike Donehey of "Tenth Avenue North"
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