Unwinding God’s Vision – Week Two

One of my biggest regrets in life traces back to a time when I lacked the courage to obey God. If you had asked me at the time, I would have told you the most important thing to me was following God. Even though I was fully convinced of that fact, it wasn’t true. How do I know? I know based on my actions (or in this case, lack thereof).

There have been a few times in my life that I have sensed God speaking specifically to my situation and circumstance, and this was one of those times. I remember standing in a worship service, surrounded by thousands of people, singing a song of surrender. I don’t recall the lyrics, but I recall God whispering to the depths of my soul that it was time to let go of three things. It was if He was challenging me to live what I was singing.

At the moment, I knew God was speaking, and I determined to do what He said. However, letting go of these things didn’t make sense to me. As I went back to my day to day life, I justified why I should hang on. After all, each of these things seemed right at the time. It seemed if I let go, I would be sacrificing opportunity and clear next steps in my life plan. In other seasons, I have been slow to obey, but this time I completely ignored God’s clear direction. I went forward with my ideas. I choose my way over God’s.

There is an interesting verse in the book of James, “To one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17 NASB) In other words, there are times when God shows us something specific to us. In this case, we are not speaking of moral right and wrong or a life principle we need to follow, but it is a time when we know an action we need to take (or avoid). In those moments, when we choose not to do that “right thing,” we select disobedience and sin.

I don’t know what path God had in mind for that season of my life, because I choose to ignore the “right thing” for me. I often wonder, what did I say no to because I thought I knew best.

We cannot go back and undo our past, we can’t change our circumstances, and we don’t have the power to determine our future. But thankfully, we serve a God who redeems. He doesn’t give up on us when we make mistakes. He can pick up the pieces and create something beautiful.

And we do have the power to do what God is revealing to us today. In another place, James tells us, “faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” (James 2:17) True faith is always connected with action. The choices we make reveal where our heart is.

I firmly believe that living out of vision always begins with God and doing what He says. Often we want God to give us all the details, confirm our ideas, and assure us everything will work out our way. But we will never find direction sitting on the sidelines. If we want to live the life God has designed for us, if we’re going to live our purpose, it begins with action.

What you do today reveals your faith. What you do today determines your tomorrow.

Are you listening? Do you know the next “right thing”? Will you do it?