God's Guidance

A lot of people are talking about God's Will and God's direction in my life. Upon reflection of the past year of 2007, it is a testing year where Job is scarce for me and when I find one, it is so mismanaged that it is difficult to fathom how in the world they survive. And when I decided to leave, I was smacked with a fine that is so ridiculous.

I wonder if God uses Job with full pun-intended in my case since I am without a proper job for so long. As Job has suffered because of God's faith in human's ability to love Him without conditions, I am constantly being bombarded with the same feeling of hopelessness and helplessness throughout this year even though my sufferings is no where near what Job has to go through.

So I picked up a book called "Decision Making and the Will of God" and thought it through the decision process of getting a job and quitting a job. The book did say quite a lot of things that makes a lot of sense and so it does seems so.

But just 2 weeks ago, we (as with wife) chanced upon this book call 'Ghosts: A Christian Encounter' and in it Psalms 37:23 just etched on my mind. It says

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord ... "(Psalm 37:23)"


So the way I see it is this: It is nice to know what the future holds and thus when we do not see anything solid, we question God's will for us. But if we question, what level of faith are we at? Would the absence of a future robs one of faith? I guess so. Consider Job as he has lost everything and he is wishy-washy about God's treatment of him and his standing before God, he has more reasons not to trust God anymore.

Then there is a higher truth that I learnt and I hope with positive expectation of good, that this lesson will not pass away: No matter what we decide to do in life, still it is led by God and so questioning His will is not fruitful at all.

Of course we should make wise decision itself because wisdom is for us to take. Consider Solomon: he did ask God for wisdom, so we can ask God for wisdom too albeit from a better position of a redeemed one, a son of royal priesthood of the line of Melchizedek through Christ Jesus.

If we are to look upon our decision making process as the 'make or break' point of our lives, I now sincerely believe that God who is able to look after us, do direct our lives so much so that even the decision that we make, is somehow being directed by God too. If that's the case, if we make the proper decision based on the wisdom that God gave and have lean on HIS understanding instead, then we can rest in the fact that whatever decision we made is already led by Him.

The only remaining question is where is God leading us?

The answer comes in the form of Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

Although I am without a job, without a sense of achievement still I have no choice but to let God do the leading and I want to follow. I can worry about the 'following' but even that God knows how to make me 'follow'. Ultimately, the end result would be a future that have a future and a good expectation of good.

What is faith if one can see the end?

How can I have the faith? The answer lies in Psalm 37:23

Jesus did ask why called Him good? Good in God's eyes have to be perfect or in the same sense, being 'righteous'. It is by undeserved favour of God (that is Grace) that we are viewed as 'righteous' despite our current state of spirituality because we have Christ in us.

And so we are now eligible to be the 'man' of Psalm 37:23...a man that God directs. A man that I am now is and was and is to come...I can say that because Jesus was, is and is to come.

So 2008 will be another year of God's leading....a life full of abundance and joy. Why? Because Jesus comes not to give us just life but life more abundantly!