Which Way Do I Go?
I’m reading a book by John Ortberg entitled All the Places to Go: How Will You Know. For starters, it’s an excellent book. Ortberg has challenged me with a lot of thoughts and phrases. One of them is when he said, “God wants us to be excellent choosers.” Have you ever considered God thinking of you in that light? I’m not sure that I have. It makes sense to me now as I think about it. I want my children to be excellent choosers. I don’t just have one path I want them to take, but I want them to make sure they’re following Jesus. I think God is the same way with us.
God’s greatest goal for you, once you become a Christian, is to be shaped into the image of His Son. He uses a variety of methods to mold our character to look more like Jesus’, but one way is through the journey of decision making. While He is interested in the particular direction we go, He’s more interested in the person we become through the process. I’m convinced that in my life there have been times God has intentionally made my future steps a little fuzzy so I would spend more time in prayer over my decision. I don’t think my prayer time was as much about finding God’s will about a direction as it was in seeing God’s character formed in my life. If I remember that God’s main desire is that I be like Jesus, it makes sense that He’ll use my crossroad experiences of decision making as a classroom of character formation.
Are you at a crossroad of decision? What are you doing to meet God in the moment so your life will be changed by the process?
2 Comments
Beverly Martincek
Thank you so much for your messages. In all the things that are happening in the world, we need so much to have the peace that only God can give to us. I know that we can not blame politicians or presidents for all the troubles, but the tone of our government today is not sending the message of mercy and kindness that all of us need to hear. It is so dependent upon us to show that “hesed” to all. Just keep reminding us that we are to show mercy and love to all. So neccessary to hear that message. Thank you
timriordan
Thanks so much for your comment. You’re so right that only God can give the peace and hope we so desperately need. The Hebrew word “hesed” is one of my favorite Old Testament words that means steadfast love, mercy, or kindness (see Lamentations 3:22). As you know, it describes God’s love for us and the kind of love and kindness we should have for others. Can you imagine the difference it would make in our world even if just Christians demonstrated this kind of love for all people? Unfortunately, people’s political agendas, on all sides, lead them to make the party or the cause to take precedence over compassion and true humanity. A good thing for all of us to consider is to think of specific ways we can show mercy and love to people in our world right now. Jesus said that loving others as He has loved us shows that we are truly His disciples.