Steadfast, Immovable, Abounding

Our society is driven by a need to plan for the future. With every little turning point in our lives, we are forced to make decisions about tomorrow, next week, next year, and the next ten years. In the midst of all this craziness, we often miss the beautiful little moments God is creating all around us. We miss the blessings He wants to give us. We miss the words He wants us to hear. And we miss the people He wants us to reach.

In Acts 8:26-27, we read: “But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, ‘Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a desert road.) So he got up and went.” God didn’t give Philip an explanation; he didn’t know the entire plan or why he was being torn from his ministry. Yet he still obeyed and had the privilege of being used by God to do amazing things. On the road to Gaza, he meets an Ethiopian eunuch who is trying, without success, to understand the prophecies of Isaiah. Through the leading of the Spirit, Philip shares the gospel and the eunuch accepts Christ and is baptized.

Could God have still accomplished His will without Philip? Of course. But because he obeyed His Lord implicitly, Philip got to see the incredible things that happen when we cast aside our own plans and do what He has placed in front of us. With a faith the world would call blind, we must trust God with our future and obey Him in our present. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33-34, “‘But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’” In these two verses, Jesus connects worry and anxiety about the future with our devotion to the Lord and His work. When we realize that the purpose of our lives is to glorify God, we stop asking how the Lord’s work will benefit us. Instead, we ask how we can use every moment to bring glory to the King of heaven.

In this world of ten-year game plans and checklists galore, we strongly underestimate the power of doing the next right thing. We so badly strain our eyes trying to see the destination that we are blind to the ground right in front of us. What does God want you to do for Him today? Who has He placed in your life to pour into right now? Where does He want you to invest your current resources to build His kingdom? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Sometimes we think we can only bring glory to God through the big, important things. We wait for those times in our life where we can do something impressive and obvious for the Lord, something worth remembering. But Paul says we are to bring glory to God even when we eat and drink. Honoring the Lord starts with the daily, mundane, unimportant, and unrecognized moments when we give everything we’ve got because we’re doing it for Him.

You might be wondering, what if I don’t even know what the next right thing is? What if I am stuck at a fork in the road, not knowing which way to turn? We all have moments like that…but have we forgotten that we literally have the Spirit of God, the Author of wisdom and the Ruler of time, living inside us? Jesus says in Luke 12:11-12, “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.’” God always gives us the answers we need exactly when we need them—we need not fear that He is confused or will leave us unequipped for the mission He has given us.

James writes, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:14-17). The last verse always gets me. Sometimes we think sin is only sin when we’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing. James assures us that not doing something we should be doing is just as sinful. Even with the best intentions, we can so easily get caught up with how we will serve God in the future that we forget how to serve Him right here, right now, with the people He has placed in our lives. Life – our giant collection of tiny moments – will only be successful if we live for our King instead of for ourselves. What does He want you to do? It’s simple: just do the next right thing.