How Do You Know?

We face a innumerable questions and choices in this life. Every day is filled with questions and choices large and small. Some times it's hard to know what choices are trivial and what choices are going to affect us for the rest of our lives. Other choices are so obviously important they can be paralyzing.

Where do I go to college?
What do I major in?
Who do I marry?
Should leave this job?
Should I take a different job?
Should I buy this house?
Where should I move my family?

As a follower of Christ we desire to make the right choice. We want to be in His will. And so we agonize over choices large and small. We way have every option and look at it from every angle. We labor over the decision not wanting to choose that which is unpleasing to God. We at times become to scared of making a choice that will put it out of God's will for our life that we don't make a choice at all. (Though that in and of it's self is a choice.)

I haven't done the research, but I am willing to guess that when young adults are given the chance to ask questions of their elders "How do I know the will of God" is asked pretty often.

And yet I often wonder if we are looking at things in a skewed way. Are we asking the wrong question? 

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

The goal of life is not to seek God's will, but to seek GOD. To throw our whole selves into pursuing Him and knowing our Savior in a personal and intimate way.

When you fall in love with some one, you get to know them in a very personal way. You delight in discovering knew things about them. You come to know them so well that you know what they like. You can plan an outing with out having to ask if they will enjoy it, because you know them so well you know what they will enjoy.

Isn't it the same with our Lord? When we are crazy about knowing God doesn't all the rest really become a minor issue? If I am constantly in the Word of God and if I am seeking Him daily in prayer, than it seems unlikely that I will turn around and make a choice contrary to Him.  It is freeing if you think about it. All of the sudden these HUGE questions become secondary. And in a way almost trivial. If I am seeking God's with all of my heart then where I go to school just doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Where I am working doesn't matter nearly as much as my attitude at work. Where I live doesn't matter as much as weather or not I am engaging fully with those around me and being effective for the kingdom of God. 

So often I get hung up in the big picture. I over analyze everything. Even in my writing I question weather or not I am doing it because it is God's will for myself or my own selfish ambition. And the truth is I may never really have the concrete answer I am looking for. But it I am seeking God and pouring my heart into His, then I am free to write. And if God desires to do something with it then He is free to do so. And if not that is ok as well. Because really all the matters it that I delighted myself in Him.

Bread Of Life

 I am working on a project that maybe some day I will share with you all. I wasn't planning on sharing any of it till it was finished, but as I wrote this part if felt so fitting with Easter just days away that I had to share.

John 6:35

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

How interesting that Christ should compare himself to bread. It is such a simple food. So basic. Some grain, some water, some fat. I am no scholar and, I am sure many people, much wiser than I am have, written things far more in depth than this. 

But these are my thoughts.

Of all of the food Christ could have compared Himself to He chose bread. He chose a basic, humble food. A staple. A food so lowly that it is what prisoners are given. When cupboards are bare and piggy banks are empty there is always bread. Like air, like water, bread meets our most basic of needs in a direct and simple manner.

 Just a day before Christ makes this statement declaring he is the Bread of Life he meets the crowds basic need of food. With bread. And they are back. Wanting that same need met again. And here He offers to meet an deeper need, a need that makes all others pale in comparison. With Himself.

He didn't choose a luxury item to compare Himself to. He didn't place Himself out of the reach of those who desperately need what He had to offer. He came to offer the most extravagant of gits: Grace. And yet He identified Himself with the food of the peasants. He came to meet our most basic need: forgiveness. And He offered it to all. Not the few that were good enough to pay for it. But all He made Himself accessible to all. Like bread. 

The King of Kings stepped off his throne. He joined the ugly, dirty, sinful masses. He lowered Himself to die a criminal's death. He became broken Passover bread. For us. For the poor. To meet our most basic need. He is living water, the bread of life. Broken for us. 

1 Corinthians 11:24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”