It’s that time of year when many people are making big decisions. College students are deciding how they’ll balance work and play over the summer, hoping for the maximum amount of play. New graduates are deciding what kind of life they’ll pursue after they leave the warm cocoon of campus life. Families are deciding what summer programs and sports they’ll put their kids in, and where they’ll send their kids to school next fall.
If they’re following God, all those people will want to get his guidance on all those big decisions. Maybe they’ll pray for him to give them a sign. Maybe they’ll look for open and closed doors. Maybe they’ll flip their Bibles open to random verses and try to decode a hidden message from it.
But James promises that God will give his wisdom to anyone who asks (James 1:5). No tricks, signs, or hidden-message-decoding required. So how can we receive it? When it comes to God’s guidance, there are a few fundamental truths that are important to remember.
1. God is separate and superior
In Isaiah 55:8-9, God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways… For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In this section of Isaiah, God is speaking to Israelites who have been exiled to Babylon. Jerusalem has been destroyed, and they’re not sure what God is doing on earth, if he’s even doing anything at all.
God confronts this doubt by explaining that his plans might not make sense to us, because his perspective and wisdom is so much higher than ours. When we start to glimpse the fullness of God’s transcendence, we start to see that God isn’t really my co-pilot, as the old bumper-sticker reads. God isn’t just my best buddy, as many of us imagine him to be. He is separate and superior – his ways are higher than ours!
Isaiah makes this point again in chapter 57:15, “Thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place.”
But that’s not all. The complete sentence reads like this: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly,and to revive the heart of the contrite.
God makes a profound statement here. In the first part, he reinforces how holy he is – literally, that means “set apart.” But the second part concerns the fundamental truth of the immanence, or nearness, of God. Not only is he separate and superior, also…
2. God is up close and personal.
As Paul said it to the philosophers in Athens, “God is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being.” God isn’t just my best buddy, but He’s also not some distant deity, watching the events here on earth like it’s a TV show. He’s active in nature, in history and government, in the media, and especially in the lives of those who are “contrite and lowly in spirit”
God is always at work in the world, in each person’s individual life. And in his wisdom he has a purpose for all of this work:
3. God has a sovereign plan
In Ephesians 1:9-11, Paul says that God has “made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
When the BIble uses the word mystery, it’s not something that you have to work really hard to try to figure out. It’s not like a Scooby Doo episode. When they were romping around asking, “Who’s in that ghost costume scaring people away from the castle?” I always wanted to yell at the TV, “It’s the owner of the castle, you idiots! It’s always the owner of the castle!”
A mystery in biblical terms is a truth that was unknown, now revealed. And God’s will is “to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.” All things in heaven and earth are going to be under Christ’s rule. Whether they know it or not. Whether they like it or not. People, animals, trees, rocks, mountains, fish, birds… everything.
In Romans 8, Paul says, “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Jesus Christ didn’t just come to get people into heaven. He came to redeem the entire universe from corruption and decay.
God’s plan for each one of us is to use us for that greater purpose. And in each decision we make, he’ll be guiding us to be part of that grand storyline of his redemptive plan. His plan is not to give comfort and security and fun at all times to you. It’s to unite all things in Christ through you.
Knowing this is like having a big map in front of us for our life’s journey. But even when we can look at a map, that doesn’t guarantee we won’t get lost. There are a few common misconceptions that can detour us. We’ll explore those next week.