How do you KNOW God’s will for your life? When is God tapping you on the shoulder to get your attention?
Jesus never prayed: “Father, show me Your will” nor “Father, reveal to me Your will…” But He DID pray… “Father, glorify Your name (John 12:28)! YOUR will be done (Mt 26:42)!”
A new thought has come into my life the last few years, “Faith In Contradiction.” The idea is that faith is called for when God contradicts us and what we want or would like to happen in life. It takes faith when He takes us in a direction we’re not comfortable with… when He leads us in a direction we don’t like… when He brings about situations that contradicts what we want it to be… when God CONTRADICTS US, THAT is when faith is called for! “Faith” is easy when things are OUR idea or what WE want…
“Faith In Contradiction” is hard because we ALL (By default) believe WE have and know the truth… God’s will… and what should be done in a given situation. Therefore we must be careful we don’t have a superior attitude toward those who see things differently than we do OR “Aren’t one of us” (The Apostles were chastised by Jesus for this… CLICK HERE). Faith is easy when God does what we want, like, prefer, or believe we know what God’s will is. Consider a FEW times when God contradicted normalcy and what humans thought about the way things should be done…
When God told Noah to build an ark… even though it had never rained (Click).
When God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son… the child of promise and blessing (Click).
When God told Moses to confront Pharaoh to let His people go (Click).
When God told Ezekiel to speak to people who would NOT listen to him (Click).
When God told Jeremiah to speak to people who would NOT listen to him (Click).
When the Messiah was born to a poor couple… and was NOT a political leader.
When the Messiah came out of the “hick town” of Nazareth (Click).
When Jesus told the Pharisees that prostitutes would get to heaven before them (Click).
When Jesus told the Apostles He would go to Jerusalem, die, and be resurrected (Click).
When Jesus taught: “The first shall be last” (Click), “The greatest must be your servant” (Click), “To live you must die” (Click), “To find your life you must lose it” (Click), “Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you” (Click), “When you are weak THEN you are strong” (Click, Paul). And these are just for starters….
It is when it becomes clear to me that my thoughts… hopes… desires… and dreams are being contradicted by God that I take it extra slow and listen closer to Him. It is when what is happening to and around me is not what I would like or prefer that I start considering that I’m being contradicted by God… so I take that as a cue to pray and seek God. When I see trends contradicting what I’d like to be seeing… I take that as God’s prodding to discern what He is DOING (Trending is what The Men of Issachar observed in 1 Chron 12:32).
Is something happening to or around you that you don’t like? It might be God contradicting you! It might be you need to doubt your doubts about what others think! Take that as a cue to pray and LISTEN TO GOD.