Hi friends,
It's been a long stretch since I last wrote on here. I have been focused on finishing my Master's degree in Teaching which I officially completed one month ago today! It's been a very exciting time and I give God all of the glory. Earning a graduate degree has been one of my dreams for many years now and I am grateful for the grace and strength God gave me to achieve this goal.
I'm writing today because God has put something on my heart for a while now. He's been teaching me a lot about His will in this season in my life. I'm sharing this with the hope and prayer that the lessons the Holy Spirit is teaching me resonates with you and draws you closer to Jesus.
First things first. I don't think that a follower of Christ who is genuinely committed to Jesus can miss God's will. If you wake up every morning and intentionally set your heart on Christ, I do not believe God will let you be led astray or make His path before you so mysterious it is indiscernible. God longs to guide us even more than we long to receive His guidance.
Yet I do believe there are levels of surrender when it comes to God's will. I like to think of our lives with the Lord as constantly moving away from the shallow waters near the shore and out farther and farther into the deep. It's not about a destination, but the process of continually choosing to go deeper with Christ - allowing Him to further refine and mature you into His likeness and character. At times, this might seem like a slow process, but God is always working on us to conform our lives into more glorious reflections of Jesus Christ.
Graduating with my Master's this year made me think of graduating with my Bachelor's five years ago. Looking back over these past five years, I am grateful to see the Lord's faithful and loving work in my life. I am more mature in Christ now than I was then - in ways I could never imagine back then. And it's wonderful. He never stops pursuing our hearts.
But the cost is surrender. Most recently, God has given me such a burden unlike never before to seek and to search for His will in all things. Ever since I can remember, since I was a little girl, I have been praying the Lord's Prayer each morning, asking for "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done." It's something I pray every day along with my personal petitions and prayers.
Yet in this season, God has been teaching me to submit every decision to His will and to specifically pray for His will to be done over the multitude of decisions I've been making right now. There's nothing more exciting and thrilling than partnering with God to do His will and be a vessel for His purposes on this earth.
But let me give you a disclaimer: When you pray for God's will to be done with regards to an opportunity, relationship, circumstance, or event in your life - get ready! I'll be honest and say that God will slam doors shut and lock them so that you cannot go through them. Things will likely turn out quite differently than your perfectly laid out plans. This might be cause for alarm, at first. Yet the Bible says that God's will is GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECT (Romans 12:2). So... when you start purposefully praying for God's will to be done in your life and that door closes and you don't understand, please know that God has something better planned for you - beyond what you can imagine. I promise you - His plans are always, always, always, always best.
Never, never be afraid to pray for God's will. The previous paragraph is not meant to scare you, but to describe the level of surrender necessary to fully living out God's will. He desires His will for your life because it's the best for you. God is not out to withhold from you or give you scraps and leftovers. He is a good, good Father. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. He created you in His image and He rejoices over every detail of your life.
Let Him have His way in your life. Let Him take your far from shore. Voyage confidently and fearlessly with Him, joyfully surrendered to His will because Your Captain knows the way. It's the way to your greatest good and His greatest glory. Lose sight of the shore as you become captivated with Him; life with Jesus is the most beautiful adventure in all the world.