Surrendering to the plan of God

My Desire

As long as I can remember I’ve had the desire to live a life in service to the Lord. However, most of the ways I’ve always dreamed of doing that revolved around scenarios that conveniently benefited me – like being on stages in front of lots people, selling lots of books, appearing on T.V. and radio, and lots of other self-serving situations. Even just the desire to be in full-time ministry and enjoying the ease of doing what I love for a living is in a way self-serving (although I still think it’s a good idea to do what you love for a living. That’s wisdom).

Recently I’ve been reading about Paul’s life. A man that undeniably lived his life in service to the Lord. As I’ve been reading it’s been shifting my perspective of what a man that desires to give his whole being to the Lord should look like. Paul was certainly well known, however, it was not because of his large number of book sales. It was actually because there was usually an entire town or city trying to kill him. He definitely wasn’t winning any popularity contests. Instead of people lining up to get his autograph people were lining up to throw stones at him. He could barely stay in a town even 3 months before he would have to flee for his life. Paul wasn’t even in “full-time ministry” as the term has come to be known by today’s standards. He was a tent maker by trade and he often used that to fund his ministry.

God’s Desires

Paul’s life was not a life of luxury or comfort. It was a life of sacrifice and often extreme hardship, and that was also the case for every single one of Jesus’ disciples as all of them were murdered for their devotion to the Lord (minus John, and they tried to kill him too). I started thinking about how whenever I would dream about being in full-time ministry that my dream NEVER ONCE looked like the life of Paul (or any of the other disciples), but instead looked like notoriety and position.

I had a sit-down with the Lord last night and surrendered all of my dreams to Him and asked Him to give me His dreams instead. I laid down my pre-conceived glamorous ideas of what life in full-time ministry would look like and asked Him to direct my path in whatever way would truly allow me to be most effective for His kingdom. Even if that means living a life like Paul’s.

Don’t get it twisted

Please don’t get me wrong. I am absolutely NOT one of those people that believe that God wants you miserable and broke to serve His kingdom. I actually believe the opposite. Jesus came to give life and life more abundant, and the scriptures make it clear that in His presence there is fullness of Joy and pleasures forevermore. And please, please, PLEASE don’t confuse this as a post hating on popular T.V. preachers as that is most certainly NOT what this is. There is nothing wrong with a preacher being on t.v., radio, or having best-selling books. In fact, I highly admire many of the preachers that have done just that. If I ever have the opportunity to preach on t.v. or radio or make it on the New York Times bestsellers list then you had better believe I’m gonna take it, and if an opportunity ever comes along for the right full-time ministry position then I will joyously accept.

The Point

All I’m trying to say is that as believers we don’t get the right to decide our destiny. Instead, it is our responsibility to discover God’s destiny for our lives and submit ourselves to it. It’s important for us all to take stock of our dreams and be sure that we really are embracing God’s dream for our life rather than asking Him to bless ours.

Living to touch God’s heart,
Chris Ulery