Introduction

Do you ever feel that you want to be involved with God's plan – but aren’t quite sure what that is? If you are ready to get involved, but not sure what God wants, you may be feeling a bit frustrated – but you are not alone.

A massive research study* by the Gallup Organisation, taken over 25 years, asked over a million employed workers about their work. They found the most important question which could measure the strength of a workplace. If everyone knew the answer to this question, they were likely to succeed. If not, they were almost bound to fail. (*source – “First Break All The Rules” by Buckingham & Coffman)

The most crucial question is this – “Do I know what is expected of me?”

As we set out to work for God, as part of his church, do we know what God expects of us? Do we know what God wants us to do?

This is a real challenge – we don’t just need general answers about what God wants to happen in the world. We know that God wants to be known by the people he made and loves, and that the church has a job to make God’s love known. The plan is that the church should be Jesus’ body – so people should be able to look at the church and see God.

In the last two weeks of Bible Thoughts, we have seen how God has given us a purpose to live and work, to be born again and become part of the church, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit, expecting spiritual fruit and gifts to be given to us as we work out our purpose.

Now – what do we do with them? What is expected of me? What is my role? Where do I fit in? Where does God want me to be, and how should I spend my time?

The good news is that, although there are no easy answers, the Bible tells us how to find out what God wants. It is a real challenge, and finding God’s will comes at a cost. It requires us to change, it needs our minds to be transformed by God. Before this can happen we need to offer our whole bodies to God as “living sacrifices”. This, the Bible teaches, is the true meaning of worship.

Day 1 – Why we don’t get easy answers from God

Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:33-36 (TNIV)

We know that engineers build things. But have you also heard of the term “reverse engineering”? This describes how people try to study what other people have built, to figure out how it works. Armies reverse engineer their enemies’ technology so they can combat it. Companies reverse engineer competitors’ inventions so they can copy or improve them. Scientists try to reverse engineer our brains, so we can figure out how they work. Reverse engineering is done by testing, observing, and figuring out logically how something works, searching for patterns and tracing out connections. If we can get our heads around that, we build up a picture of how something is made, and what we need to do to control it.

People want to know how God works, and it’s tempting for us to try and “reverse engineer” God – to take control and discover the secrets of God’s reasoning and will for us by testing and studying God. But Romans 11:33-36 warns us against this. It explains why we will fail if we are after “quick fix” answers, or if we want to master getting our heads around how God works. This is why we don’t find it easy to know what God wants:

• God’s wisdom and knowledge are too deep for us to follow
• God’s paths are beyond tracing out – we can’t reverse engineer him!
• God is not our equal – we don’t know his mind or advise him
• God has not received anything from us which he needs to repay
• God is the source and creator of everything we have
• God deserves all of the credit, or glory, for everything – we don’t!

So if we think that our cleverness, maturity, wisdom, experience, or anything else we build or control can take us closer to knowing what God wants, we are wrong. But everything we have comes from God – so we receive because of his mercy, not because we have worked to deserve anything – and we should credit God for that.

To consider and pray throughout today

• Have I been trying to get to know God’s will, but keeping myself in control?
• Have I thought I could work God out, and build my own understanding of him?
• Have I believed that a portion of my time and talent made a good offering for God?
• How do I feel about putting God in control and relying entirely on him?
• How can I show that I give God the credit/glory for what he has given me?