Worship at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday

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It is God's Will

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I give thanks to our gracious God for putting you all in our lives. Your faithfulness and your enthusiasm fill my heart with joy and helps complete my hope in Christ. Every day I look forward to serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ alongside each of you and growing in our discipleship journey together.

As we continue to move through the Season of Lent, I would like to remind us of God’s love and grace as we seek to be drawn closer to Him through our self-denial, or our practice of new spiritual disciplines. What is God’s will for our lives? Scripture tells us that it is for us to live in a fruitful and abundant relationship with Him.

It is within that relationship that we grow more aware of God’s will for our lives, as well as God’s direction. Intimacy with Christ, is the connection as we speak to God, Listen to God, and feel the Holy Spirit nudging us to move forward.

Too often, I hear, “If it is God’s will” or “If it is Your will, Oh God” then …. God continues to reveal His will already to us, we simply need to be quiet long enough to listen, to experience. The word “If” is a word that can cause doubt. When Jesus was tempted, the devil continued to state, “If you are the Son of Man….” We know Jesus was the Son of Man. He had just heard, himself, the voice of God who said, “This is my son whom I am well pleased.” God confirmed it, Jesus heard it, but Satan wanted Jesus to doubt the will of God.

Sometimes I think Satan tries to put that doubt in our minds when we begin to move towards God’s will for our lives and for our church. Satan continues to through in the “ifs” to cause us to second guess ourselves, our even second guess God.

I know our intentions when asking “If this is God’s will” is simply to make sure we are on the right track, but the truth is simple – If we are intimately in touch with God regularly, we never have to wonder what His will is. He continues to show us.

The second obstacle of praying, “If this is Your will” is if something doesn’t come to fruition, we place the “blame” on God. Well, it must not have been what He wants for us. Instead, maybe we should look inwardly and ask ourselves, did we miss something? Did we doubt? Sure God doesn’t always “give” us what we want. But when we pray for God’s will and doors begin to open, even if there are obstacles in our way, make no mistake, that is the direction God is directing us.

It is God’s will that we grow His kingdom through disciple making initiatives. It is God’s will that we focus more on the His Kingdom than our kingdom. It is God’s will for us to focus more on the lost in our community that meeting our preferences within the church. It is God’s will that we flourish, become fruitful, and with an abundance of Grace, Love, Joy, Hope and Faith that we move forward following His guidance, and not our fears or doubts.

Imagine the impact we will have on God’s Kingdom and our community as we continue to grow in our intimacy with Christ; get out of the boat when He calls us to take a step of faith and walk on water; and when what we do is motivated only to glorify God and nothing else.

Have a blessed week!

Pastor Frank