God loves you.
That is what you have to know first and foremost.
For most of my life I was terribly concerned with what God wanted me to do with my life.
At times I’d be excited. Other times I was terrified because what if God asked me to go live in a mud hut in some remote area in Timbuktu! With no running water or electricity! I mean what would I do then! Not going would mean I was being disobedient. Going meant aaargh! A life without running water or electricity – in a mud hut!
What a regrettable picture of who God is!
So recently I went down the same road: Examining everything I had going on and searching for God’s will- I was surprised to find out how terrified I was- again!
And as I began to study The Scriptures and soak myself in God this nagging feeling wouldn’t leave me. What if God asked me to leave everything I was doing and set me on another path? What really was His Will for my life? Was I following it?
Smack bang in the middle of my searching I stopped myself. Or it could’ve been God stopping me from the tizz I was getting myself into because I don’t have the restraint in me to not go crazy with such reflections. Anyway what I felt impressed upon my heart was that the fear I was feeling stemmed from me not believing how much God loved me.
So I stopped all my searching and self-reflection etc and decided to spend time instead finding out how much God loved me.
Note: This takes a while. Pretty much all your life if you ask me.
But I knew that I had to start somewhere.
The Scriptures say perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). For a long time I’d believed that once I had perfect love that would drive out my fear. I recently listened to a teaching though that taught me that this is not talking about our love as humans- because as humans it’s impossible for us to have perfect love. But God has perfect love toward us. Perfect unconditional love. And when we realise this the realisation casts out whatever fear we may have.
This love (God’s love) is ever present. Our part is to realise it, believe it and dwell in it.
As I find out how much God loves me everything else seems so insignificant. I trust that His desires become my desires and following His will becomes easy and joyful.
God will never ask you to do something you hate. You will have an ardent desire for it- you will be eager and excited and you will be joyful doing it. That is the goodness of God.
If He sends you to live in a mud hut in Timbuktu, you’ll be the kind of person who loves loves loves such settings. You will love your mud hut- and you will find this kind of lifestyle exhilarating. I’ll be sitting in Jo’burg wondering how you could live like that and you will say: “Oh Hannah it’s just so wonderful. God is blessing me in ways I never ever imagined!” And you will have joy.
God is not a nasty, ruthless, proud, heartless, slave driver as I believed for so much of my life. He is compassionate and humble. He is loving and so kind. And even now after all He’s done for us He continues to work alongside us as a humble servant- and He is a King- The King of glory!
Don’t be afraid of what His will for your life is. It is wonderful and you will enjoy it more than anything you’ve ever done. And once you’re in it you will wonder how come you were so afraid when this was what was waiting for you all along!
It could be that you’re doing exactly what God wants you to do but you may be doing it in a way that doesn’t have Him at the centre of your operations. You can always turn things around in Him. He may lead you down different avenues of the same field- the key is to be open to His guiding. He knows all things. And He provides fully for all His missions.
As little kids we were taught the parable about the foolish man who built his house on the sand and the wise man who built his house on the rock. My husband once told me that he believed that the rock was God’s love for him. I’ve come to believe this.
When we build on the absolute conviction that God loves us whatever we build will stand.
I grew up around teachings that were all about what I should do for God. That’s the wrongest place to start. We should start rather with what God has done for us in and through Jesus?
The most futile quest is to try and love God with all we have. In ourselves it can’t be done. But when you embark on the fruitful quest of finding out how much God loves you reciprocating that love becomes easy.
Before you ask God what He wants you to do realise how much He loves you. It is my experience that the more you focus on how much He loves you the more you get wonderful urges and desires- you may think they are your ideas but that’s you tapping into the mind of Christ which you have.
It all begins with absorbing this truth that God loves you, utterly and absolutely. His desire is for you to have joy.
You are not His slave but a fellow labourer with Him. More than anything He wants for you to have joy.
Remember always the reason He gave for coming to this earth: He came that you may have an abundant life.