Retirement: Insights From The BibleShembull

What’s God’s will for my retirement?

Yesterday, we looked at what God has placed in your hand – what He has given or is giving you – in your retirement.

Today, we look at what God may want you to do with this – what His will and calling is for your life in retirement.

The question of how to hear God’s voice is a big question, and much has been written about it by many smart and spiritually-minded people. Even so, we can spend a short time together to explore how to find God’s will for our retirement.

In Bible times, God sometimes spoke to people directly – via angels, a burning bush, prophetic visions and more. Sometimes my wife and I would wonder why God doesn’t just tell us what He wants and then we can do it. Although that makes things sound easier, its wrong thinking on a couple of fronts.

Firstly, if God really came down and told us exactly what to do, would we even want to hear it? What if it took us way out of our comfort zone? What if it meant moving away? Selling our stuff? Changing our lives? The conclusion we came to was maybe it’s just as well that God doesn’t speak to us so directly.

But secondly, God is already telling us what he wants us to do – to love Him and love others as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-39). 

Sure, you say, I already know that but that’s not really giving me insights into what God wants for me and from me in retirement. That’s quite possible, so here’s five steps to hearing God’s voice that may be helpful:

1. Pray. Prayer is an open line of communication with God. If you want to hear from God, the first step is to talk with Him. Open up to Him, lay out your desires and your fears, and then ask for wisdom too.
2. Read the Bible. When you pray, you are speaking to God. When you read the Bible, God is speaking to you. If you’ve never read the Bible cover-to-cover, retirement gives you the time to do this, so find a reading plan you like and add 15 minutes to your daily schedule to do this. No more excuses!
3. Get wise counsel. God also speaks through people. Christianity is not a solo sport. God has placed other Christians all around you who have the spiritual maturity to help you see God’s plan for your retirement. Don’t hesitate to reach out to them!
4. Check your desires. You might already have a plan – a dream – for your retirement. That’s not wrong, but personal desires are powerful and can easily lead us in the wrong direction. So be sure to check these with God in prayer and others in your circle of wisdom also.
5. Wait, listen, and watch. It took years to get to retirement, so don’t rush finding out what’s next. If you follow the above four steps, God’s will for your retirement will become clear. Just wait and listen and you will hear it.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, I love you and want my life to honor you too. Thank you for bringing me to where I am and blessing me as you have. Help me to draw closer to you and find the good works, the good plan, that you have for the rest of my life. Amen.