People say I am an "easy-going" person, and I know they are right. I don't let things bother me. I just kind of go with the flow. I would not be a good movie hero. The hero is usually someone who knows what they want. Indiana Jones always knew what he was looking for. He was looking for something awesome, like the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail. I like characters like that. They are decisive. Here, in the real world, it's not so easy. There are a few decisive types out there, chasing their dreams, taking risks. I envy people who know what they want. Every time I think, "It would be cool to play the guitar," for instance, some other part of me says, "Yea, but then you won't have time to learn Greek and Hebrew or write that novel." Even with the small decisions, it gets hard to identify just what it is I am after. Here's my wife and I on our way to dinner out:
Me: "Where do you want to eat?"
Wife: "I don't know. You pick."
Me: "Uh . . . How about MacPaneradiceolive Bakery, Garden, and Deli?"
Wife: "No, I hate that place."
Since I am an easy-going person, I know about people like me. When there is a decision to make, we defer. We like to hang back and let others take the lead. I see this as a virtuous trait (I'm putting others first). But, I know my wife would like me to pick a restaurant, and prove I put some thought into our date night!
You know I have been talking about Jesus' promise to answer our prayers, and there is a phrase in one of the key passages on answers to prayer that has become the best friend of us easy-going types. In I John 5:14, it says, "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." Here, according to "easy-going" theology, is the great "out clause" of Jesus' promise to answer our prayers: "according to His will." Whatever you are praying for, you add "according to Your will" to the end of it, and you have submitted your request to the great unfathomable will of our Heavenly Father. You have put Him first. That way, if you do not receive your request, it is because it did not fit into the great unknowable plan of God. And you can actually feel more spiritual than the selfish people, who are asking God for stuff. If you are easy-going, like me, passive acceptance of your situation (which must be the will of God) is almost comforting. You are now a passenger on the train of God's will, which can only go where the tracks go. This is a pretty accurate description of how I looked at life.
What is the will of God? The way I looked at things, it was like a train that pulled up to the station about when you graduated from high school. If you got on, there, it made stops at the right college, the right vocation, the right spouse, and the right house. All the details filled themselves in, based on knowing the will of God for the big decisions. If you failed at one of those decisions, it was like falling off the train and then forever chasing it down the tracks. You can see that a lot of us have lost our way, based on that thinking. Some of us lost our way long before high school graduation. And so here we are, wondering what the will of God has to do with us. Would it help to know that, in the New Testament, "will" is the same Greek word as "desire?" Now, we can read it again: "If we ask anything according to His desire (for us), He hears us." Maybe, you can't know God's overall plan, but you can know His desires, because He tells us what they are. In Luke 12, Jesus says it is God's "good pleasure to give us the kingdom." Romans 8:32 says, "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" Clearly, all things are ours, because we are God's children and heirs. Does that mean we can ask Him for anything we want? A new car? A boat? I don't know. That is between you and your Heavenly Father. I think, when your heart's desire matches up with His desire for you, then you will have your request. I John 5 goes on to say, "If we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked of Him." When I first started this blog, it was because I sensed God was calling me to understand His promise to answer my prayers. I also knew what He wanted me to ask for. They were the things that were troubling my heart. Now, I am laying those requests at His feet, and thanking Him for the answers, even though, for the most part, they have not yet been revealed. I don't worry that my requests might not be part of God's plan. I know that they are part of His purpose for me. He desires these things for my life even more than I do. He has given me freedom and joy and a purpose. He wants to reveal Himself to me in an even greater way. He loves my family even more than I do, and desires to reveal Himself to them. If there are obstacles to my receiving all those things, then He is clearing them out of my path. My part is not to sit passively by as if God's plan did not include me. My part is to move forward, believing that God is clearing the path to the promise He has given me. I used the word "revealed" intentionally, because I believe that is God's first objective in your life, to reveal Himself to you. And then comes His purpose and His promise. I don't think you will find a person in the Bible, who God revealed Himself to, that He did not also give a purpose and a promise.
Are you familiar with the story of Joseph? He had a dream, as a teenager, that all his brothers, and even his father and mother would bow down to him. Nobody really liked his dream very much. His jealous brothers sold him into slavery. As a slave, he caused all his master's affairs to prosper. Then his master's wife falsely accused him, and he ended up in jail. Imagine yourself in Joseph's situation. You might have been a dreamer in High School, but life has thrown so many rocks at you, that even when you do think of those dreams, it's just a bitter memory. If Joseph was bitter, we don't read about it. He was elevated to a place of respect, even in prison, because he was faithful. But, he was even forgotten by the people he helped in prison. Then one day God changed everything. Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream, something he had been gifted by God to do, and, suddenly, he was in charge of Egypt. Joseph's own dream came true. His family did bow down to him, and he became their rescuer.
Don't lose heart. Don't let yourself be discouraged or distracted by your circumstances. God intends to accomplish the things that He has put in your heart. Know that He put them there, because He wants them for you.