As young adults, we are all on a quest:
a quest to get the best education,
a quest to be the best candidate for the job,
a quest to get the best job that will satisfy us,
a quest that will get us the best pay that will help us to accomplish things, and so on.
We hope that we will be happy if we can ‘just’ accomplish our goals. However, in that quest, we tend to lose something. Let’s think about this!
In our quest to be the best, we are, in fact, competing with our friends and peers to come out on top! Society and our education system have taught us that striving for being the best is the ultimate goal. We have an idea of a future that we desire to have, and we make a lot of noise about those plans - even when it puts us in competition with those around us!
Some of us may invoke God to help and some of us will not. In either case, we are losing something when on this quest to be the best. Look at the nations of the world.
They make a lot of noise about their plans.
They all want to succeed.
They want to have power.
However, all of their successes come with someone’s loss or subjugation!
It is competition of this type, this desire to be the best at the cost of another, that also influences politics and leads to wars and strife.
Let’s look at Isaiah 17:12-14
12 Woe to the many nations that rage—
they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.
The “Roar” referred to here is their propaganda and plans for domination to secure a future that will help them accomplish things. In Hebrew literature and in the Christian Bible, “the Seas'' is used poetically to refer to “worldly chaos & confusion”. Sometimes “the Seas”, this worldly chaos, turns into a rushing flood that comes in with a roar.
We all know the damage a tsunami wave can bring. One cannot stand against its force when it comes in. It is similar when God acts. The force of His will amounts to the plans of man and nations to be just like chaff that are blown away by the winds on the hills. Here today and gone tomorrow!
We are not recommending that one should never make any plans. However, we should be cautious and remember that when our plans ignore our fellow humans and put them down, human society is not helped. This is not what God wants for humanity! There is a lot of chest-thumping going around. Amid all the roaring, God observes quietly from His dwelling place and even laughs at the plans of humanity! Nothing fazes Him!
Isaiah 18:4-5
4 This is what the Lord says to me:
“I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
and cut down and take away the spreading branches.
Psalm 2:1-4
1 Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
3 “Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”
4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
In the past, the Hebrews had the same plans as the other nations of the world. God continued to ask them to trust in Him.
Isaiah 30:15
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it...
Notice in the above scripture how the Hebrews “would have none of it”. They did not choose to rest in quiet and trust God. This is how it is for most of us, we are building our lives without God, choosing to trust our own ideas of what is best rather than resting quietly and trusting God. We may have a 10-step success plan, but:
Is God in all of this?
Is He only there to help make our plans succeed?
The Hebrews lost everything! What should one do?
When looked at in another way; we are all building our own kingdoms. But as Christians, we are called to a different Kingdom.
Mathew 6:9-10
9 ...‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven...
Let us examine our lives:
What kingdom are we building?
Are we striving only to achieve our own idea of what is best for our lives?
Or are we living as though we are living in God’s Kingdom here on earth and trusting in God’s best for our lives?
Living with a focus towards God’s Kingdom instead of our own vision of our best kingdom does still require us to work and do our best to succeed in all that we do. However, the difference for believers in Jesus, unlike others, is that we go about our work with a healthy consideration of our fellow human beings! As a result, we may not achieve all the things according to our own plans. But in all honesty, if many of us looked at our past we would have realized that some of the things we made so much fuss about weren’t really necessary for our lives! Trusting God to work His best in our lives allows us to work together with our fellow believers, instead of in competition, in mutual focus to actively build God’s Kingdom here on earth.
Getting to know His Will requires communication! Let us read His word and pray as we make our way in this world taking God’s Kingdom along with us!
Thank you for reading this far! If you enjoyed this and you are in Bangalore, please do join us for worship. Our Young Adults Fellowship meets on the 2nd & 3rd Sundays every month after church. You can look up our ministries and schedules here.
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