Experiencing God

Chapter Eight-God’s Invitation to Join Him in His Work

Question 1. Review George Mueller’s approach to knowing God’s Will and how you will apply it to your life.

If I do not follow God’s plans, I will miss what he wants me to do. I must not rely on my own plans and thinking. I must know how god is thinking. I also must know how God is going to use me.

Here is how I will know God’s will:

By seeking God’s direction

By waiting patiently until God speaks to me through scripture

By looking to the Holy Spirit

By evaluating the honesty of my heart

By being upright before God

Be being patient while waiting for God

By not listening to the counsel of others

Question 2. Do you desire more than anything else to know and do the will of God? If your honest answer is no, what must happen before you can reach the place where your will is replaced by God’s?

As I am continuing with this book, I find myself yearning to know his will. However, I still at times find myself unsure.

The main thing I must do is focus on God-centered living. I have to be confident in God and all that he can and will do.

I must depend on him to provide all my needs.

My life and thoughts must be focused on God.

I must be humbled before God.

I must not think about myself.

Before God will reveal himself to me, I must first seek the Kingdom of God.

Question 3. Do you have some plans that God has not been blessing? If so, why might that be?

There have been many times when things did not go my way. Rather than blaming God, I can only blame myself. That is because I have been living a self-centered life.

I am full of pride when I get things accomplished. Here is an example. There are some days when I get a lot accomplished around the house. I might have every room in the house clean plus have enough time to do other things. I might say, “I am proud of myself.” While this is not the boastful type of pride, it is still pride.

Self-confidence is even self-centered living. I depend on myself and what I know I can accomplish to get things done. I look to do things that are acceptable to others around me and look at things from a human perspective rather than looking at things from a godly perspective. Overall, I concentrate on my weaknesses than what God can do through me.

Question 4. Have you been experiencing difficult times lately? Have they caused you to grow discouraged in doing what God told you to do? How might God interpret your current circumstances? Are your difficulties indicating that God wants you to quit what you are doing?

Whatever happens in my life, whether good or bad, are all God’s purposes. I always face difficulties and they are there to realize that I cannot do things on my own. Even if things look dark for me, God always knows the outcome. God will allow so much to happen to me. He will not push me to the point where I turn my back on him forever.

I have many plans for my life. I have published one novel and plan to write many more. I plan to travel. I plan to lose ten more pounds. However, these plans may not be in God’s perspective. Everything I plan is irrelevant to God’s plans. Doing things by God’s was is the way to go.

I remember a time when I wanted to become a best-selling author. When I was an older teen, I started a fantasy novel and it took a couple years to write. Liking the final product, I sent it to several publishers, thinking I would get an acceptance letter as well as a reasonable advance. To make a long story short, each publisher rejected my manuscript. My manuscript, as well as some short stories, lay hidden in the attic. I was discouraged that my name would not be in print. Then a miracle came. It was called the Internet. I was able to finally able to publish my writings and share them with my online audience. However, there was still something missing. Then I realized what it was. God was inspiring me to write. However, it was not fantasy novels he wanted me to write. He wanted me to write about and share Him.

Note: I do write fiction now and then. However, it is not the highest priority in my life.

Question 5. Have you been faithfully waiting on the Lord? Are you good at waiting for god? Why or why not?

I try my best. However, I let my self-interests get in the way. I am very impatient. Here is something that happened the other day. It was my last day at work and I had a few days off. I got home and went to go on my computer. I wanted to see how much money I had in my bank because I wanted to pay the cable bill. Well, my computer was running slow and I was yelling at it to hurry up. Then when I finally got online, the web banking was down. So I had to go to the bank and stand in a long line of irate customers. When I finally got through with the bank, I had to drive with annoying drivers. When I got to the cable company, I had to stand in another long line of irate customers. By the time I got home, I had had it. Every bad word must have left my lips and I even blamed God and Jesus for everything that had happened.

Then things started to happen for the better. A few weeks before, I completed my tax returns. This was the first time I used Turbo Tax and was hoping to get my refunds quicker. While I knew my state refund was coming, my Federal return was rejected. This was one of the things that pushed my angry button earlier in the day. I fixed an item and resubmitted it. When I got back home, I found out that the IRS accepted the return the second time around.

We were short on money because most of my paycheck went into car repairs and bills. I did not have much money left but still needed to get groceries for the week. I also needed to put gas in the car.

While going through my pocketbook, I found two gift cards from Wegmans. Then when I got in my car, I looked down and saw a $20 bill on the floor. It must have fallen out of my pocket. Even though the day started out bad, it ended up good. I was stressed and God provided.

God’s ways are not our ways. This is what I need to remind myself every day. I might feel that God is leading me to do something. However, I might go around doing things the wrong way. If I had been more patient the other day, I may have been more in tune with God.