God's WILL of Fortune

Joshua 1:8 (New International Version)

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Don't we all want to know the future? Sometimes, I do. Life will be less stressful if I just knew what God plans to do with my life. If only God would write in black and white in the Bible what will specifically happen about my job, my relationships, my heart's desires.

But He doesn't.

It's not like I want to know everything. But there are some things that are just too important to me and it matters that I know what God will do about it. When my dad was sick, I wanted to know if it was God's will for him to be healed or to die. When my boyfriend and I were separated and agreed to temporarily cut off communications in order for us to focus on God, I ended up focusing on finding out whether or not God wants us to eventually get back together.

Well I read in the Bible one night that Jesus healed a paralyzed man so I truly believed it was His promise that He would heal my dad. He didn't.

I kept on reading and reading God's Word to find out His opinion about me getting back together with my boyfriend. Nothing. One day I felt that maybe He was telling me one thing, the next day I try to confirm it but there's nothing. I had no peace. I only ended up being frustrated and quit reading the Bible for a while because "He's not speaking to me, anyway."

Knowing God's will can be quite--for lack of a better term--tricky in this world of ask Google, "'What to Do?' for Dummies," Oprah Winfreys and Dr. Phils. There's so much noise on the Planet that it's difficult to hear an invisible God.

Working full time with youth, I've seen young people like me have a hard time understanding God's will. Saying things like "God told me..." and "God wants me to..." carelessly and too often.

I have read good materials about discerning God's will like Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby, and they've helped me a lot in making God-glorifying, major decisions in my life. But these are more for making big decisions and not about finding out what God will be doing in your future. What I learned recently is that finding God's will for your life should be less about you and more about God.

"But isn't the fact that I want to know God's will make it all about Him?" you ask. Maybe. But is it really?

'Cause if it were, then you wouldn't be frustrated with Him. You wouldn't get angry. You wouldn't close your Bible, stick it in a shelf, and give God the silent treatment. You wouldn't say that "God is not speaking."

2 Timothy 3:16 states that "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," Too often we use the Bible as though it were a prophecy book not about Jesus or His return, but about us and the details of our lives.

While it is true that the details of your life and the things that are important to you matter to God, the Bible is not about you. It's about Jesus, God's plan for salvation, and God's principles to help you grow towards Christlikeness. Paul didn't say that the "Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training, and fortune telling."

So I've learned that the Bible is not so I can try to figure out what God wants me to eat for lunch, what He plans to do with my prayers, or what exactly is He cooking up for my future. If it's a "Yes," then He'll do it. He won't if it's a "No." Why do I keep on wanting to find out in advance what He will eventually reveal?

I should read the Bible to find out more about Him, His character, His love, His pleasures, His plans to prosper and not harm me, and His desire for me to become more like Jesus.

I've read before that more than you or anyone in the entire universe, God wants to reveal to you His will. It is not some kind of game to Him that He would keep His will a secret and wait 'til you figure it out.

Besides, God's ultimate will is already clear: that we all become more like His Son, Jesus. The Bible is full of principles, commands and directions toward that goal. And if we meditate on God's Word day and night, then we will be able to carefully make decisions that will please Him and bless us. (Joshua 1:8) Let's not make our time of meditation in God's Word be about us. His Word and our lives are all about Him.