Tuesday, October 7th, 2003 - God's Will Before Ours

I've told of some major things that God has done in my life so far, and while there are many more, I included those three posts as most significant for me in falling more in love with Christ. That brings us to the present, a mere week after God began teaching me about true communion with Him.

One of the major things that God has really instilled in me in recent times is following His will before or instead of our own will. I will illustrate some examples of this that God has shown me.

One was this summer. Last spring semester I made plans (my own will) to be a counselor at a Bible Camp. I applied, interviewed, got accepted, and even arrived at camp early in the summer. I had done all this without praying about it, because I was focusing my prayers on so many people around me and also in my decision to transfer schools for the fall semester. I got to camp and everything was beautiful and wonderful in my mind.

We had two weeks of staff training in which I then made plans to pray about and prepare for the summer at camp. I went to God in the Word that first night at camp and He spoke to me so loud. Through His Word, He showed me how I had planned this whole summer out in my own way instead of asking Him what He wanted. He told me that His plans were not for me to work at this camp, and that I should go back to La Crosse (my hometown). In short, I went back to La Crosse, and God did so many awesome things that summer - He used others for me and used me for others. This wouldn't have been possible (at least with the same people) if I had stayed at camp.

In another case, I was a little less disobedient (in a way). I spent my first year of college at La Crosse and loved it in every way. I wanted to stay there... wasn't really sure what I was going to do, but I wanted to stay. God put it upon my heart to transfer schools; He showed me that I needed to leave the comfort of my home area and be without such abundant support. Upon praying about it, God told me (so many times, over and over) to come to school up here in Duluth where I am right now.

I didn't have a great desire to come to Duluth (like as compared to other schools I could have gone to); I had never been to the campus and really didn't know a thing about it. But I knew that I wanted to follow God's will instead of my own, so I transferred. It has been such an amazing learning experience, mostly in the area of complete dependence on God for strength rather than "getting by" on my own strength. This has been such an immense blessing this year even in the short time I have been up here.

These are a couple fairly recent examples of how God has shown me that His will is always better than my own, no matter how bad I want to do my own thing. The verse that comes to mind for me in this area is Acts 20:24, "but my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus" (italics mine). I pray that God's will will always continue to come before ours.

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