What Is God's Plan for My Life?Ihe Atụ

A Posture, Not a Task

For most of my life, I believed God’s plan for my life was to do the most ministry possible. Talk about works-based righteousness!

But when Jesus was asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus didn’t give us a task. He gave us a posture.

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37)

Jesus’ response points us back to a relationship with the Father and loving relationships with others.

Our calling is not to a place or vocation or even a person to marry. It’s to God himself. Our primary role is to love the Lord with all we have, love others, and become more like Christ. The rest is God’s responsibility.

Rob, are you saying we should stop leading our Bible studies? Stop taking college students out to share their faith? Stop serving in our churches?

By no means! What I am saying is that too often, our focus lands on the works and not Jesus. When we focus on “doing,” we’re driven by “should.” When we focus on Jesus, we’re driven by love, and the works naturally follow.

I struggled with the idea of leaving five years of interpersonal, boots-on-the-ground ministry to join an organization as an administrative assistant. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t seem like I’d be doing enough.

But what I needed to do was focus less on my “spiritual resume” and more on Jesus. When I did, I began to see that the most important thing was for me to conform to the image of Christ.

I had a lot of practice being a leader. What I needed was more practice being a servant. This “behind the scenes” job was just what I needed.

Slowly, my anxiety eased.

As you consider the decision before you, take some time to lay aside the question of what God wants you to “do” and focus instead on just loving the Lord your God.

When you do, you’ll begin to see your situation through a new set of eyes.

Next, we are going to talk about what it looks like to really love God in the decisions we are facing.

Pray: Lord, the decisions I face loom large. Please help me, at this moment, to lay them down and focus only on you. Help me to fall more in love with you today. Please show me how to be more like your Son. In Jesus’ name. Amen.