When we truly do what the scriptures teach us, AKA God’s Instructions for Living, I believe that they become unerringly true for us. Sadly, the reverse is also true for many people.

Yesterday, I reconnected with an old friend on the phone.  We had not spoken in 14 years.  He complained that while he said he believed in God, he did not believe that God actually cares about people or acts on their behalf.  I asked him why he believed that.  He said that it was because all he ever wanted was to be a lawyer and that he had prayed for God to let him pass the bar exam and he had failed it twelve times.  I suggested to him that perhaps it was not God’s plan for him and he said to me “well. If God didn’t want me to be a lawyer then He should have given me a sign I could understand.”  All I could say to him was, what is there about “no” that you didn’t understand?

Ironically, this same man had done other great things in his life.  He became a licensed pilot, and a certified SCUBA instructor and raised two kids who had turned out to be good adults.  The sad part was that he was looking at the fact that he couldn’t pass the bar, and his disappointment in that reality, as being the cornerstone of his life, and therefore the basis of his attitude towards God.  He had become so embittered by this, in fact, that despite the good things that God had given him, he ended up alienating his wife, who left him because she could no longer stand his negativity.  He told me however, that he blamed God for that too.

If only my friend would come to believe this Scripture…

Matthew 6:33 – But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

When we turn our will over to God’ Will then He begins to truly move in our lives so that we lack nothing…

Hence this next Scripture…

Philippians 4:6 – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

Then he could have seen the truth in this Scripture…

Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

And finally realize the beauty in this one…

Eph. 2:10 – we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

It is my fervent prayer and true hope that my friend will yet come to align himself with the Lord’s perfect Will and find joy, maybe including the restoration of his marriage, which he says he wants.  I hope to be a part of his reconciliation with God in Christ and see him fully delivered from anger and regret.  May we all come to truly walk out the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane…

Not MY will Father, but YOUR Will be done.

It is the Father’s joy to give the Kingdom to His Son.  We become one with the Son when we do the Will of the Father.

 

In the Love of God, with hope in Christ Jesus,

John Henry