God's Purpose or My Dream?

I've often considered over the years God's purpose for my life and made plans and preparations to fulfill it. I think it might have been too often, rather, that I was following my own heart's desires, because little or nothing came of many of my preparations, whether it was as simple as taking a meal to someone who wasn't home, taking a class in writing children's literature, taking a few counseling classes, or obtaining a graduate degree. But over time, I've come to realize that much of what I've done has been working out my own desires. That's not to say the preparations were unfruitful, but that the fruit was found in the process rather than in the outcome.

Sharing a similar thought from Oswald Chambers today.

We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.

What is my dream of God’s purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process – that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.

God’s training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.

God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present: if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.

~ from My Utmost for His Highest

Painting ~ A Pensive Moment, Daniel Ridgway Knight 1839-1924

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