will, will, will

A few years ago I had a different existence. I worked in the Mission Department at the Baptist Union of Great Britain. I worked with some brilliant colleagues and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. If I had not been convinced that God had called me to Colchester Baptist Church I would have been delighted to stay there.

But how do we know that God is calling us? We looked at this question at Alpha on Wednesday. I can remember a period of time when I was convinced that God has a specific route through life that he wants us all to follow exactly and feeling paralysed by the thought that if I get it wrong I have blown it.

I have now experienced that God guides us in two ways – his general will and his particular will. Have a look at this file [God’s will] and you will see what I mean.

The green swathe represents God’s general will. This is revealed to us in the Bible. He wants us to be loving, to be generous, to be kind, to be faithful, to be thankful… In many ways this is summarised by the 10 Commandments and Jesus’ explanation of them in the Sermon on the Mount. But think of the 10 Cs as a shorthand summary of the best way to experience and enjoy life – by turning them into positives. So, ‘do not steal’ can become ‘work for what you have’, ‘do not covet’ can become ‘relax if other people have better stuff than you’ and ‘do not commit adultery’ can become ‘do all you can to love and bless your spouse’.

The red dotted line represents someone’s life. We can make different choices in life that will keep us in God’s general will. And we can make choices that will take us outside it, but we can always come back to him and seek forgiveness and a fresh start. There are moments, however, when God may have something specific he wants us to do (‘x’ on the chart). At those moments we again have choices – to obey or not. Even if we disobey, God does not give up on us, he is grace personified!

If you doubt God’s grace, read the book of Jonah. Don’t stop when the fish vomits him up onto the beach, keep going. God asked him to do something specific. He refused. God gave him a second chance… and even took the time and trouble to explain to old grumpypants (aka Jonah) what he was doing.

Be blessed, be a blessing.

Have you ever wondered why the people of Nineveh paid so much attention to Jonah? Well, wouldn’t you stop and listen to someone who turned up covered in seaweed, smelling of fish vomit and starting his talk with, “A funny thing happened to me on the way to the theatre…”