Yep, this is the week to focus on SOUL work – and yep, “running wild” is addressed in the Bible. Seriously.
Why talk about this now? You will never guess how this pairs up with all the “goal-setting” and resolutions and 2024 planning that is going on right now. It certainly took me by surprise as I read Henry Blackaby’s devotional on this. But – here it is!
“Without revelation people run wild; but one who listens to instruction will be happy.” Proverbs 29:18
Blackaby reveals the contrast – he says the world operates on vision. And then he points out that God’s people live by revelation.
I have noticed he is right about people dreaming up the greatest and most satisfying things in which they can invest their lives. How many goal-setting exercises have I participated in where the business guru/leader is pushing everyone to double, or even triple, the first dollar amount people set as their desired earnings? Have seen this often.
Another contrast by Blackaby – Institutions establish goals and objectives and then organize themselves to achieve them. God’s people function in a radically different way – Christians arrange their lives based on the revelation of God, regardless of whether it makes sense to them.
He reminds us of some facts which I need to remember regularly (so I will impose them on you, too):
- God does not ask our opinion about what is best for our future, our family, our church, or our country.
- God already knows these things.
- What God wants is to get the attention of His people and reveal to us what is on His heart, His will.
- God’s ways are not our ways! (see Isaiah 55:8-9)
Blackaby so nailed my usual modus operandi (call it ‘doing it my way’).
He says when people do not base their lives on God’s revelation, they cast off restraint (another fancy way of saying I’ll do it my way). I do what is right in my own eyes – set goals, arrange my agenda and then pray for God’s blessings. Oh dear – who’s in charge here?
And then I have a great retort! So, what is God’s will for me – I haven’t been able to see it – I want the postcard in the mail with the step-by-step ‘how to’, please!
Now, I agreed with Blackaby’s statement that the only way to know God’s will is for Him to reveal it to me and to you. But that is where I get stumped. Not very helpfully, Blackaby adds that I can’t discover it on my own. Oh, darn!
Here’s how he puts it — “when you hear from the Father, you have an immediate agenda for your life: obedience.”
So I immediately want to put up the objections – that’s too vague, how can I KNOW His will, I’ve asked and never hear anything, etc. Blackaby kicks me back to the Proverbs verse saying “one who listens to instruction will be happy.”
OK, so I have to tell you what popped in my mind. Our dear Evelyn, age 103, knows her Bible inside out and is sharp as a tack, spoke up in last Sunday’s class with her response to a question – and a response that is exactly fitting my stuttered objections. She said, “you have to get your nose in the Bible!”
She is so right. There is no easy formula, no worldly blueprint, but as it was mentioned earlier, the only way is for God to reveal His will to me. So my job is to do whatever it is I need to do to be listening to Him.
Oh, I can throw the questions at Him fast and furious, but I am not so sure I am as active in searching the scripture, digging into the concordance on key words, and sitting quietly in prayer mode with Him as I should be.
And I know I want a quick and complete answer. Patience? – not in the least. Plus, as Blackaby mentioned, I am too easily enamored with my own plans.
Even if I am thinking my plans are surely really cool and even God would be pleased, until I have heard from Him, I cannot even imagine all that He could accomplish through me. I do need reminding that He sees the “big picture”, knows me better than I could ever know myself, and I am truly finite and limited in vision.
Yes, I sit quietly in prayer in my daily devotional time – for a few minutes. But as Blackaby pointed out in another devotional, every time the Lord Jesus faced an important decision, He prayed. And he prayed the entire night when it was time to choose his disciples. (Luke 6:12)
It was so convicting when I saw Blackaby’s sampling of Jesus’ prayer time:
- Setting the agenda for Jesus’ ministry (Luke 6:12)
- Preceding miracles (John 11:42-43)
- Encouragement at critical moments (Luke 9:28-31)
- Enabling Jesus to go to the cross (Luke 22:41-42)
- Keeping him there despite excruciating pain (Luke 23:46)
Jesus had many people seeking to influence the direction of His life – even crowds that wanted to crown Him king. But if I follow His example, I need to let my time alone with God, in prayer, set the agenda for my life.
Don’t know about you, but I do have way too many sources I am seeing that want to influence the direction of my time, focus and life.
So I plan to get my “nose in my Bible” and get “time alone with God, in prayer”. And my hearing must be finely tuned with patience!
May 2024 be a year of finding and following God’s agenda for you (and me).
