Connect The Dots
It is a study about understanding the ongoing will of God for your life.
Week 1 Introduction Beyond The Big Three -
Does God really want to answer my big questions?
Week 2 The Nature of God's Will -
What am I looking for anyway?
Week 3 God's Will for everyday -
How can I hear God's voice?
Week 4 God's Will in All Seasons -
What about fleece's, doors, and signs?
Week 5 God's Will Through His Spirit -
How does the Holy Spirit help me find God's will?
Week 6 God's Will Through Community -
Is it O.K. to listen to other people?
Week 7 The Silence of God -
What about when there is nothing to hear?
We will begin the week of July 27th and it will last for 7 weeks (if we stay on track) Here is a short video talking about this study.
Introduction- Week 1
Beyond The Big Three
Who should I marry?
Where should I work?
Where should I live?
Asking these questions usually leads to one simple question for most Christians. "What's God's will for my life?"
If you're asking these questions, you certainly are not alone. If you've already spent a few years in the work force or college these questions seem to loom a little larger. It's natural, it's part of growing in wisdom, it's part of figuring out how you will live your life and what it means to be you on your terms.
But perhaps we only want to know God's will as long as it lines up with our ideas of what we think life should be. That's usually why the big three prompt us to ask the question concerning God's will for or lives...we have our hearts and minds already set on what our plans look like. If that's true, then our question really isn't "What's God's will for my life?" It's actually "Does God's will for my life line up with my vision for my life?"
Most never see the proverbial skywriting telling them the direction God desires for them. For a lot of folks my age (55) this is represented by a life of searching for answers to these same questions, and at the end of the day many have no answers and simply make the major decisions of their life with little more than a sense of which direction God wants them to go. The search for certainty or confidence in God's will has become little more than a pipe dream for most.
Despite this, I firmly believe God cares deeply about the major decisions of your life. I think he cares about every aspect of our lives, so much so that perhaps we should start our search with a slightly different question than the one most of us ask.
Instead of: "What's God's will for my life?"
We should first ask: "What's God's will in my life?"
The difference is huge. Over the next several weeks maybe you can rediscover that God not only has a plan for you, but cares deeply about you. His greatest call on all our lives is for us to follow Jesus and become conformed to him. In other words, god is far more interested in who we are than in what we do. It's not about finding answers as much as we seek to find and know God Himself.
I pray that the end result of CONNECT THE DOTS will be a greater love for, hope in, and commitment to the will of God in all our lives.
Rick
Exerpts taken from the book "Connect The Dots" by Mike Hurt and published by Lifeway as part of their "Threads" ministry to young adults.
