I am a total type-A personality. I need control and I crave details. And as most of us know, God doesn’t always operate like that. He doesn’t give us the full plan because if we had it, what is the point of trusting in his provision, goodness, all that junk?
However, something that really bugs me about our Christian subculture is that we are constantly “waiting on God.”
We’re waiting on God to move, to show up, to release the blessing.
We’re waiting on God to get us a better job, to fix our relationships, to bring our healing.
We’re waiting on God to give us permission to date, to bring us our spouse.
Can I get real with you?
I think most of us are waiting on God because we are scared to make a wrong choice.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t rely on God. Of course we should. But sometimes relying on God looks a lot like hard work. God provides us with our daily bread. God gives us what we need. But for the dreams he has given us, for the desires in our hearts, for the things that give us joy and fulfill us –much of that is our responsibility.
We have become lazy as a Christian culture. If you look at anyone in scripture, what were they doing? Exactly that: they were DOING! God gave them a vision of their destiny, but they had to get up and walk towards it. They had to take the steps towards the dream God had given them.
Look at King David. He gets anointed as King when he is a kid, and had to walk through one hell of a struggle before the crown was his. But in that time of walking forward, taking risks, knowing and trusting God was with him that he matured and became able to step into his royal mandate.
Look at Esther. God placed her in the palace for “such a time as this,” to help save her people from the racist, evil advisor to the king. Do you think that if she was waiting for God to drop the playbook down in her lap that her goal was going to be accomplished?
People, we gots to hustle for the Kingdom of God.
You want God to move in your city? Go out and start telling people about Jesus. Start serving the poor, the widow, the orphan, the outcast. Be the blessing they need. Stop waiting for God to just intervene in their life, that is your job. You are God with skin on.
You want a better job, better marriage, or to get healed? Do something about it! Look for the job that is going to be life giving. Get down to the nitty gritty with your spouse. Go sit down with a mentor or accountability partner and get some prayer. God is waiting to give you what you want and need, but you have to take a step towards it.
You have to start asking for it. God won’t give you what you don’t ask for.
You want to ask that pretty girl or cute boy at church on a date? GROW SOME AND DO IT! (And I mean that in the most respectable way to my sisters who are reading this.) I am so sick of people who are tip toeing around dating and are too scared to hurt another person or be hurt.
We are adults now. Act like it. It’s just dating, not premarital counseling.
All that, to drive home this point from earlier:
Sometimes relying on God looks like hard work.
Stop being lazy. Stop complaining that nothing is happening. Do something. You have the Spirit of the Living God in you. Take a step forward in faith and know God is with you. Don’t worry about not knowing what God wants. If you want to know what he wants, begin to know his ways. When you are rooted in his ways, his will is not much of a mystery:
Love God. Love people. Advance the Kingdom. It’s a simple as that.