My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
Proverbs 2:1-8
In my previous blogs, I have fairly extensively been asking the questions “Who am I?” and “What’s my purpose?”. As I write this I am in my late 50’s, and have been asking these two questions all my life, but why? The only answer to this question is another question, “Where am I going?”. Over the past few months my life has radically changed, so my life long search for the answer to the question “Where am I going?”, has taken on a new urgency. In truth, I really don’t know the answer to this question, but I do know that I am going somewhere.
In the past few weeks I have been looking, with you, at what is my purpose, and we have worked out that I have a purpose, God created me on purpose, with a purpose.
The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
(Proverbs 16:4 (ESV))
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
(Psalm 138:8 (ESV)).
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
(Ephesians 2:10 (ESV))
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
(Colossians 1:16 (ESV))
These are just a few of so many more verses that tells me that God created me for purpose. So there must be an answer to the question “Where am I going?”; because I am going somewhere! In fact, the Bible tells me I am “predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). Don’t worry I am not clever enough to write about predestination, I will leave that to others who are more studied than I.
So I am on a “Predestined Path”, but can I stray from this path! Yes, because I was created with freewill and, therefore, I have to choose to follow the path God laid out for me (Matthew 16:24, John 8:12, John 10:27 ….), and I can’t just sit back and let God do all the work either, though, of course He can. If I take the first steps then God will meet me and carry me to help fulfill my purpose, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8, James 2:14-26).
So what happens if I don’t choose to follow the path God laid down for me? Does God’s plan(s) fail? By no means! God’s plan(s) were perfected before the beginning of time and not even the gates of Hades can overcome them (Matthew 16:18), and His plan(s) are DEFINITELY not dependant on me or my choices. God chose me before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), he created me for a purpose but he gave me the freewill to choose to follow his purpose for me (Genesis 2:16-17, Galatians 5:16-17, Deuteronomy 11:26-18, Genesis 4:607, Proverbs 1:28 ….). He also knew whether I would freely choose to follow His/my purpose, or whether I would freely choose not to. So God’s plan is perfect, but I am fallen (born of sin) and need to choose to follow Him, which I can only do through the Holy Spirit, because I am weak (born of sin) (Titus 3:5, John 6:44, Ephesians 2:5 ….) and need the help of the Holy Spirit. (is this circular logic?? Either way I have the freewill to choose).
So to round this off, I now known I am going somewhere, but where! How do I find out! I have just said God has given me a purpose and direction, which He predestined, so, perhaps, an obvious way to find my direction is to ask God,”indeed, [I] call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding“. Also I am told to “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” (Ephesians 6:18) because “We[/I] do not know what we[/I] ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us[/me] through wordless groans.” (Romans 8:26). So in the power of the Holy Spirit I can ask God where I am to go, and He will, tell me, at least as much as I need to know at the time of asking. So where am I going? I don’t know but “[I] look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then [I] will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding“.