A few nights ago, we were having a night of soaking worship with the YWAM team that we’re partnering with this month. Soaking worship is pretty much what it sounds like; you listen to worship music and just soak in God’s presence and just be still with Him. Now normally I tend to mentally check out when we do soaking worship (oops), but this night I felt the Lord prompting me to just sit with Him and listen.
At some point early on in worship the question came up, “Why are you doing what you’re doing?” And I thought about it. Up until right then if someone asked me why I was on the Race I would have told them that it was so I could figure out if my college degree what where God wanted me and to find out His will for me. And then I thought about it some more, and God said, “Exalt my name.”
Exalt my name.
I realized in a split second that I was using finding the will of God as an excuse to try and figure out my own life. I wasn’t seeking His will for the purpose of knowing Him more, but I was seeking His will to try and secure my future. It’s so simple y’all! When we choose to exalt His name THAT is His will for us. The other things that in my limited sight that seem so dang important like college, relationships, money, church, and everything else are all secondary to loving Him and seeing His name exalted! If we only do that, then we are in the will of God. We (I know I especially do this) tend to get so caught up in exactly when God us to do something or the specific place that we “have to be called to” in order to do His work and be in His will.
But guess what? We’re adults and God gave us free will and wants us to use it, and sometimes there’s a lot of different ways to get to your destination and God allows us to choose. There’s a great quote by E. Stanley Jones that says, “Obviously God will guide us in a way that will develop spontaneity in us. The development of character, rather than direction in this, that, and the other matter, must be the primary purpose of the Father. He will guide us, but He won’t override us.” Being in the will of God is doing more than just doing what He wants us to do; it is that, but it’s also SO much more!
If you ask me now why I’m on the race or even my purpose in this life, it’s to see God exalted on high. I don’t need to “find” the will of God because He’s already shown us what it is. Y’all this radically changed my Race and the way I’ve been living!! Ministry isn’t just doing evangelism for the 20 millionth time with people who don’t speak the same language, being uncomfortable is a chance for Him to take the glory in what I cannot do, and a bazillion other things. All I have to do is exalt His name and He’s going to take care of the rest whatever and wherever that may be. Live life to see His name exalted on high.
