"Then Jesus explained: 'My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for harvest." John 4: 34-35 (NLT)
Every follower of Christ has struggled with discerning God's will for their lives. We get caught up in the idea of our futures and what we can and will do, but too often we can't figure out what to do. So we have the best of intentions right? God honors that right? Well, yes, He does honor when our hearts desire to fulfill that which He has planned for us, but I imagine Him lovingly chuckling when we beg of Him to reveal what that is! Often I have prayed that if God would just TELL me, give me some sort of visual "sign," some clear indication of what He wants me to do, that I would do it! No questions asked. But the beautiful thing about Him knowing us backwards and forwards is that He knows even then we would have questions. Even then, we would be dissatisfied. He has given us His Word and in it He begs of us to "listen!" and "look!" and "believe." It's all right there in front of us, but the hard part is faith and trust. The easier road is not the better one, and the true fulfillment comes from following Christ through doubt and uncertainty. This requires us to listen, look, and sense. His presence is all around if we seek Him, and we can't expect God to appear to us to say, "I want you to go to medical school. I want you to move to Finland. I want you to marry this person. I want you to do this for your summer. I want you to..." He wants us to choose! The beauty is that whatever we choose, if our lives are centered on Him and we are earnestly and eagerly seeking His face, we will find ourselves fulfilling and "doing the will of God" which will bring us true fulfillment. Listen and look for today. Do it tomorrow too. Just don't do it with the intention of getting all that you want. That's not what we are called to as Christ's followers. When we follow Christ, we lead others, and if we look around we will certainly see a world hungry for nourishment that food alone cannot provide. So look...listen..."vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for harvest."
