To be so much in contact with God that you never need to ask Him to show you His will, is to be nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you are rightly related to God, it is a life of freedom and liberty and delight, you are God’s will, and all your common-sense decisions are His will for you unless He checks.
To be God’s will can feel like an impossibility. As Christians, I think we pray to know the will of God more often than we pray for anything else. I know that is the prayer that I have prayed the most. Oswald Chambers goes on in today’s chapter to pose a question that puts perspective on the way we pray as it relates to the will of God.
“Think of the last thing you prayed about – were you devoted to your desire or to God? Determined to get some gift of the Spirit or to get at God?”
The last thing I prayed about was healing in my back. It was a completely personal desire. I often pray for discernment and guidance in regards to His calling on my life because I am determined to be where He wants me to be. If I am honest with myself, those prayers are about getting a vocational position that lines up with where I feel He has called me, rather than getting to Him personally.
As I am going through a season of refining, I am realizing more and more how much potential exists for growth in my relationship with Christ. I look forward to growing in my faith to the point where my natural decisions are the will of God. I want to be the will of God instead of just chasing after it.
I am still having conversations with mentors, pastors, elders and other leaders around me regarding my vocational calling, but I am devoting a majority of my energy to focusing on God—Father, Son and Spirit. I pray that I will be filled with the fullness of the Spirit daily. I pray that the life of Jesus Christ would be reflected in everything I do. I pray that my relationship with the Father would grow so much that I just call him Abba, Father instead of just the/my/our Father.
I still ask God for direction in my decisions, but the right decisions are becoming more natural to me. Where are you at in your relationship with God? Are you more devoted to your desires or to God?