Love His Leadership

 At some point in our lives we will ask ourselves, "Where are I am going?" or "do I have the right vision for my life?" If this is you, then you are not alone. I have been at a crossroads where I am feeling pressure to do what culture is doing. The other end is pulling on my heart for ministry. Now, I do not know exactly what that looks like or what sphere of influence I am in, but I am growing and will continue to grow. But as of right now, I am holding on what I have already attained. Trusting God has always been a huge subject for me, but should be for every believer. It requires great risk. It shows our dependency on God, and our willingness to follow Jesus.
   I have been reading a book by Dr. Randall Worley called, Wandering and Wondering. If you have never read this book, I highly recommend reading it! Worley wrote this book on the process letting God educate us through every area of our lives while discovering more of his loving nature. If you know God, you know he absolutely loves the process. The process is where we meet him, learn from him, discover more of him, and become closer to him. Here is quote straight out of his book:
"Our Faith should embrace the ambiguity of not knowing where one is being led, because it is so in love with the One who is leading."
   This has got to be one of the most amazing revelations I have came across in my time of being alive! Faith is not knowing where we are going all of the time, but trusting God knows what is best for us. Hear me out, I am not stating that God cannot give us vision for our life or calling. Ultimately, God is our vision. If we take our eyes off of him, we can end up in the wrong lane. Are you following me? Wrong lane meaning, we end up somewhere we are not called to be, which does not fulfill our soul or destiny. Faith requires a great amount of trust and risk. That risk is not always knowing where we are going because we love God, who is the one that is leading. Amazingly, He does not decide if we are following him. He does not control us, We actually control us, surprise! He gives us the option. Love is an option. We can choose to give into it or not. Here is a few scenarios of you:
    Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, he notices two brothers fishing, Simon and Andrew. Watching them cast their nets into the sea, he says to them, "Come follow me and I will transform you into men who catch people instead of fish!" Immediately they dropped their needs and left everything behind to follow Jesus. (Read Mark 1:16-18)
    Jesus went out to to walk near Lake Galilee, and a massive crowd gathered, so he taught them. As he walked along, he found Levi, the son of Alphaeus (Matthew), sitting at the tax booth, collecting taxes. He approached him and said, "Come follow me." Immediately he got up from his booth and began to follow Jesus. (Read Mark 2:13-14)
    Now, I could go through the bible and find so many scriptures on people following Jesus, and Jesus commanding people to pick up their cross and follow him into all truth. The point I am getting at here is they left their old lives behind. the big question is, why? could it be that they have seen or heard of some of the miracles that Jesus had performed? or maybe they were just tired of their own lives? Correct me if I am wrong here, but you can also sense the urgency in Simon(Peter), Andrew, and Levi(Matthew). Without hesitation, they drop everything and follow Jesus. The source of life, the voice of truth, the Son of God. They were desperate for something more. They took the risk. The transformation that took place in their lives while following Jesus must have been incredible. The miracles they saw him perform along the way changed their lives forever.
"Following Jesus is an invitation on a journey of transformation, risk, healing, and discovering our identity."
    God is inviting us on a journey of complete and utter transformation. Sometimes we try to revisit our past, but the father isn't interested in what we left behind because we gave him the life we didn't want by following him. Where else could we go? How could we go back to those old ways of doing things? Galatians 5:9 says, "But now that we truly know him and understand how deeply we're loved by him, why would we, even for a moment, consider turning back to those weak and feeble principles of religion, as though we were still subject to them?" God is not interested in going back and neither should we. When we are in love with God and we know how much he loves us, it allows us to be in love with his leading also. As I close, I want to lead you into something profound. Picture yourself for the first time as a little child sitting at the top of a huge slide at the park, you look around and realize how high up you are. Anxiety for the first time sets in. You become nervous and scared (we have all been here before). You look down at the end of the slide, and see your Mom or Dad at the bottom with their arms wide open encouraging you to take the risk, assuring you that everything is going to be okay.
   This depicting imagery represents the Father encouraging us to make the plunge, ready to catch us when we make the risk of trusting him in all things. It shows how incredibly present he is in every moment of our lives. He is always emotionally available for his children at all times. 
"The Scarcity of risk and trust is removed when we focus on the Father"