God’s Desire

Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great,

so that you will be a blessing.” Genesis 12:1-2

Dear Friends,

On Sunday, we heard the story about God calling Abram (later renamed, Abraham). God’s calling to Abraham was to leave where he was living and go to another place yet to be named! In this case, God’s calling was to go somewhere. Though not always geographic, God’s calling is always to something. It still begs the question, How do we know the thought that we have is God’s voice and not someone else’s (or just our own)?

The place where Scripture starts is with God—who is God and what is God’s desire. For myself, I begin with some simple statements about God:

·         God is love.

·         God desires life for us.

·         God calls us to communal living.

·         God intends for us to be a blessing to the world.

I start here, because if the “calling” seems to be counter to these, then I would suspect that it is NOT God’s calling.

In our attempt to try to discern God’s calling, on Sunday I introduced a possible place to start looking. It is most easily captured with the Venn diagram below.

A very good place to begin to look for God’s desire for you and your life is where three things intersect:

1) What brings you joy?

What are you passionate about?

What do you enjoy doing?

2) What are your gifts?

What are you naturally good at?

What comes easy for you?

What do people compliment you about?

3) What is the work that needs to be done?

Where is there a need in the world?

How could you make a difference?

What troubles your heart?

If your life is about doing things that bring you joy, that you’re good at, and that make a difference in the world, then that sounds like a rather fulfilling life! Hmmm.

Peace,

Pastor Phil