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I am currently reading a book that contains simple prayers to start my day. It's called "One Minute Prayers For Men" - Harvest House Publishers. The last line of today's prayer really struck me. It said, "I want to experience Your will, Lord, not the trappings of another person’s path."
This is such an important statement for those of us fighting to stay out of the victim thinking ways that have plagued us in the past. Comparing our lives to the life of another is such a crippling strategy when it comes to who we are. I am so quick to look at what another person is doing and find fault in who God has made me to be. When I read today's prayer, I was struck with the difference between living out God's will and wanting to live life like what another person is experiencing.
I realize how that last paragraph could be confusing. Let me give you and example of what I'm talking about. I have a couple friends who are nothing short of amazing. They are kind. They are so spiritually connected. They love the Lord in obvious ways. To top it all off they spend a significant amount of each year ministering in China.
When I look at their lives and compare my friends to the life I have, here's what goes through my head. When it comes to kindness, I'm really moving in the right direction. I still have a long way to go but I feel that this is an area of my life where I see God making a big difference in how I approach others that He brings into my sphere of influence. I get a gold star for kindness. As for being spiritually connected, I also feel like God has taught me so much over the years in this area. I don't know if I earn a gold star in this area or not, but I'm not self condemning when it comes to how being spiritually connected works in my life right now. As for loving God, I believe this is one of the areas where God has really done some miracles in my life. This part of my journey has been such a wonderful experience for me. The last area of my friend's life is where I feel I fall short.
Watching this couple give up so much to go and be a part of what God is doing in China is such a double edged sword for me. On one hand, I'm amazed at them for their ability to listen to God and respond to what He is doing through them. On the other hand, I'm brought to a place where I think less of who I am. I have next to no drive at all to travel long distances to minister in foreign lands. What is wrong with me? If God is all about saving the world, how could I be so off base and not be drawn to doing what my friends do and make foreign missions a priority in my life?
This is a prime example of being driven by the "trappings of another person's life" mentioned in the prayer I read this morning. It is so easy to look at another person's life and find fault in ours when we don't consider God's will for each of us.
It is clearly God's will that this couple be drawn to China. When I sit back and consider my life, it is clearly God's will that I not go to China. Both my friends and me need to be open to considering how God's will might change in the future and respond accordingly. God might just as easily call me to the mission field just like He could change my friends' calling and keep them at home. It isn't that either of us is doing anything wrong. It is when we look at each other's lives and try to make sense of who we are that we set ourselves up for failure.
I'm not missing God's view of identity by staying home unless I'm rejecting God's specific call for my life to be a part of foreign missions. I have been made for what God is doing right here in my own back yard. Thinking I am less for not going to China is exactly what Satan wants me to do. He wants me to think that my God given identity can't be trusted. He wants me to think God's will is something that is not all that critical in my life. It is when we look at what others are doing as motivation for allowing our identities to come alive that we step into situations where victim thinking threatens to limit our ability to impact this world in ways we were created for.
God has me part of a work here in California that is just as important as what is happening in China. God wants me here just as he wants my friends in China. If I think my identity is somehow lessened by my being here I might be tempted to take action in ways that makes the work God has for me here to not get done. I'm seeing so many of us having less and less impact because we think we are somehow less in God's eyes because we don't do as much as others around us.
It is never about how much a person does when it comes to God seeing us for who we are. It is always about God's will when it comes to identity. The quantity, and even the quality, of what we do has not bearing to God. It is our willingness to obey that impresses God. Experiencing God's will trumps being like someone else. Another person's path can never do for us what living in the place of God's will does when it comes to being able to live this life like the victors God sees us to be.
I love how today's reading makes the point about basking in who we are.
Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. Galatians 6:4-5 (MSG)
I have been given a work to do where I live. My friends have been given a work to do in China. One isn't more important than the other. One isn't valued more by God than the other. Our identities are empowered when we bow to the will of God rather than the drive to be like someone else. Our reading today says that all we are responsible to do is to do our very best with what God has given us to do.
God is concerned for who we are as individuals. Trying to be like someone else is such a slap in the face of this God that paid such a high price for us to be who we are. My jealous feelings for my friends do nothing but make me feel bad. Thinking that these friends are better than me could actually drive a wedge in our relationship. It is when we sense God's will and then respond as fully as we can in that will that our identity comes alive in ways that are truly amazing.
Fact is that we will always look at the lives of others and have feelings that aren't all that constructive when it comes to identity. What I'm trying to do now with those feelings is to let God sort them out for me. I do this when I take those feelings to God. I'm learning a greater trust in hearing from God as I take the things that frustrate me to Him and let His tender direction change how my identity works to make change in this world.
What's God's will for your life? There's a question for the ages. All I know is that, first and foremost, God's will is for me to relate to Him. The more I relate to Him, the more the doing in my life lines up with what God is doing in the world. That might mean that I am destined to get on a plane for China one day. It could also mean that I will never leave California when it comes to ministry. Until God leads otherwise, I am to relate to Him in the here and now. Making my relationship with God a priority has made me better able to serve him right where I'm at without the feelings of inadequacy overwhelming me like they have in the past.
You are purposed by God. That purpose might take you to the far ends of the earth. That purpose might be just as complete right were you are now. Trust God. He will make it clear what you are to do. If you have the draw to get up and get going - do it! If you feel you are exactly where you are suppose to be don't let what others are doing make you miss God's will for your life. Let God's plan for your life be all you need to make who you are change your world today.
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