Seeking God's Will...

When you're on the brink of
your future, it's very difficult
and even a bit scary trying 

to make a career choice.

I know. I'm there.

Above all, I want to do God's will, 

but what is God’s will?

Well, it’s not our job to find God's will for anyone else,
but it is our duty to find out what God wants for our own lives.

We cannot go to other people and have them make the choice for us.

It's our own decision; our own lives to live for God.

The fact is, God has put me here and keeps me here because He has a purpose.

A plan from before I was born, and He waits to use me in that perfect way. 

Life isn’t about just doing what I want, even if it’s a ‘good thing’.

Maybe I want to be a teacher, but is it what God wants for me?

Perhaps I want to be a doctor, but is it what God made me to be?

Maybe I dream of being a foreign missionary doing the Lord’s work,

but is that the Lord’s work for me?

So many times, we tend to settle for something good, or maybe even really
good, but we don’t bother pushing for God’s best for our own lives.

 Now, the Lord has not planned for me to do something 

I absolutely hate and I’ll have to miss out on everything I do like.

He is not a mean God who sits back thinking,

“OK, Ally dislikes this, and that’s what I want her to do to be a living

sacrifice, or else she doesn’t get my blessings.”

Quite the contrary, actually.

There comes great joy when doing the Lord’s will.

And He has taken care to plant every little thing about me…

He knows my interests, my likes, my desires;

and He wishes to use those things for His own will.

But when I’m in my flesh, I cannot properly balance such things,

and can easily be swayed into doing things off of how it feels to me.

He wishes to help us, to strengthen us with His own strength,

so that we may accomplish what we were created to do.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

 Ever since I took college-level chemistry in high school (at age 14!),

I dreamed of being a Nuclear Chemist. I have a great love for science

(especially chemistry) and have a very good understanding of it.

But at the time, I figured that it wasn’t the Lord’s perfect will for my life,
and thus gave that desire to Him about my 11th grade year in school.

Since I was 12, I thought foreign mission work was what God wanted.

After all, shouldn’t every God-fearing Christian
fulfill such a noble, godly calling? 

I certainly have a heart for mission work, just as every Christian should, 

so after graduating high school, I started making plans on how, 

where, and when I was going to get to the mission field.

I figured I could better use my science for God by being a missionary doctor.

I was literally weighing the differences of careers from what

I thought was the eternal perspective of each situation.

Surely I was in the will of God! After all, look what I surrendered: 

I wasn’t planning to fulfil my own dream to be a scientist! 

Sacrifice, great plans, His work… yep, God must be pleased.

 But I started really examining my heart and realizing
that it was I who had it all planned out. 

I was doing what I thought was best. I was trying to serve Him in my flesh. 

I was using my talents, my time, and my plans
in my own strength to try and please Him. 

It was a humble realization to find that it was really not pleasing to Him. 

Maybe He actually does want me to be a nuclear chemist? 

Maybe He wants me to be a missionary doctor? 

He could want me to be a plumber! 

My ideas and plans for mission work were certainly good ones, 

but I may have been shutting out God’s perfect will by doing what seemed
right to me, and what I thought would impress all the Christians around me.

And my plans may be what the Lord wants, but I was doing it in my own 

ideas, ability, and strength, thus it was not pleasing to Him.

So many times we try to walk in the spirit through the flesh. 

How contrary is that! 

Yet, isn’t that the case a lot of the time? 

We may want people to think,

“Oh, that’s a great Christian. He does great things for God.” 

My desire is that people will not look at me and say 

“What a good person she is”; but rather, 

“What a great Savior He is.” 

I am nothing without Christ. Jesus says,

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” John 15:4.

Just as plucking off a branch from a vine isn’t going to get you grapes from the
branch; so a Christian working in his own flesh without Christ, 

isn’t going to produce the right fruit. 

We need to be abiding in the Lord day and night, all the time. 

We must to be strengthened with His might, not our own.

Now, as I'm confused as to exactly what the Lord wants,

I've been learning to completely trust in Him, not in my own ideas.

I don't need to plan my whole life out, just take it one step at a time.

He'll put me where He wants me, I just need to be willing 

and surrendered to wherever and whatever that is.

I encourage you, pour out your burden to the Lord, 

tell Him what you want and what you feel you should do.

Ask Him to use you according His will. But don’t ask if you’re not willing.