Who is the Author of your Story?

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. “ Let’s talk about this for a minute. This clearly tells us that God is our creator. He is the one who made us and knows everything about us. To further prove this point, the bible tells us that he knit us in our mother’s womb and knows all of the hairs on our head.  All that being said, then why do we struggle so much with allowing him to lead our life? Well, of course it is our sin nature. We want control and want to direct our own path, yet everywhere in God’s word, he reminds us time and time again that it is 'He' that knows what is best for us.  He is trying to lovingly and gently restore, redeem and lead us to a life of freedom. He wants us to let go of the pen and give it back to Him, allowing Him again to be the author of our story.

As parents, it is Chris and my privilege and responsibility to raise Brooks and Shane to the best of our ability. Right now, they are ages 6 and 9 and incapable of taking care of themselves without us.  We are there to teach them how to function in the world, provide food, clothes, shelter, and love among many other things. How foolish would it be for either of them to reject us and try to make it on their own; to direct their own path? You know where I’m going with this.  Once we are aware of God and realize He is our creator and wants what is best for us, why is surrendering so difficult? Why do we pout and feel like we are being held captive, when it is quite the opposite? He wants to set us free. The bible even tells us, “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM!”

I’ll be the first to admit it, once I entered college, I never really thought of asking God what his plans for my life were. I was just following the ‘norm’ of my culture, the rat race: get an education, decide what you’re interested or skilled in and then pursue that degree and try to get a job.  We’re so busy at following the norm of our culture that we fail to ‘be still and know that I am God’. We fail to surrender and ask God to reveal to us His plans for our lives and to follow them.  Did you realize that the entire reason we were even created in the first place was FOR God. It was to bring about His glory, to make Him know and to glorify Him. Don’t agree or believe me? Check out Isaiah 43:7 in the bible. It is crystal clear. It states “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created FOR MY GLORY, whom I formed and made.” It’s right there! God made us to live for Him, but we get misdirected and begin to live for ourselves.

John Piper says it like this, “If there is a God, as I believe there is, and if he rules the world in his sovereignty, as the Bible says he does, and if he will bring human history to a close according to his plan and appoint to every person his eternal destiny, as Jesus taught that he will, then two of the most important questions for any human being to answer are these:

1. What is God’s goal in creating and governing the world?

2. How can I bring my life into alignment with that goal?

For if we don’t know his goal and our lives are not in alignment with it, then we will find ourselves at cross-purposes with God and excluded from his kingdom in the age to come. “ end quote.

When God says he made us for his glory, he does not mean he made us so that he could become more glorious in himself. Instead what Isaiah 43:7 means is that he created us to DISPLAY his glory, that is, that his glory might be known and praised. This is the goal of God with which we must be aligned in our hearts and actions if we hope to escape his wrath at the judgment.  So how do we do that? What sorts of things must we think and feel and do for God to get glory from us? I’ve always wondered these things to and the bible tells us ‘love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind’ it also says ‘trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your OWN understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths’ . After reading these verses, my take away from them is that God wants us to love, trust, follow and obey Him. He wants to be the author again of our story, so that we can rest in knowing we are fulfilling His purpose for our life.  We must surrender our own personal agendas, trust in Him as our King, and then represent Him faithfully in the world.

One of my greatest desires is to know and trust God like Abraham did in the bible. He trusted that God was going to provide a ram in the thicket when he was asked to sacrifice his only son Isaac. I also want to know and trust God like the widow in 1 Kings 17 who did as Elijah the prophet asked and trusted that God would continue to refill her jug of oil and that her jar of flour would not run out until God sent rain. Even when they couldn’t see His plan and what was going on around them seemed to make no sense, they fully trusted and obeyed the Lord. I want that and pray for it daily.

We are trying, here in Peru, to trust in God’s plans for us and for the people of Ayaviri. I often think of the parable of the sower living here on the farm. We know that God has asked us to be here at this time in our lives, and that means there must be some fertile soil around here. I’ll admit, it can be discouraging at times when we scatter the seeds of the gospel and it keeps landing on the thorny soil or the rocky soil. We have to continue to ask God- where is the fertile soil? Whom should we invest in, and where should we begin planting? Left up to us, we’d lack the wisdom and guidance of the Lord and be scattering seeds in all the wrong directions.

Now, I don’t think sharing God’s word with EVERYONE is a waste of time, but we are trying to plant and yield fruit here, and that takes God’s leading and direction.  This is the part where prayer comes in to play. Pray that in 2018-God makes it very clear who we need to go deeper with.  Pray that we find the fertile soil and can begin planting and watering more this year. Our goal is to make God known and that the Holy Spirit helps the people to recognize their sin and need for a savior. Once they decide to follow Jesus and allow him to write out their story, then we can continue teaching them how to love, trust and obey him which brings Him glory! The interesting thing is that the two ladies who are believers are already asking, “How do I glorify God?” The ones that are seeking Him want to know and we can’t wait to continue showing them how great our God is!