Day 17
TOPIC: JOINING GOD REQUIRES ADJUSTMENTS
Many of us want God to speak and lead us in His will. We want the excitement of God working through us, but we are loath to make any major adjustments so He will. The Bible reveals that every time God speaks to people about something He wants to do, they have to realign their lives in some way. When God’s people are willing to take the necessary actions, God accomplishes His purposes through those He calls.
When God speaks, revealing what He is about to do, that revelation is your invitation to adjust your life to Him. As you adjust your heart and mind to Him, His purposes, and His ways, you are in a position to obey. You can’t continue business as usual or stay where you are and go with God at the same time. This truth is clearly evident in the Scriptures.
Enormous changes and adjustments were required whenever God’s people determined to obey His calling. Some had to leave family and country. Others had to abandon long held prejudices and reorient their thinking. Men and women were willing to leave behind life goals, ideals, and desires. Everything had to be yielded to God and their entire life adjusted to Him. The moment the necessary adjustments were made, however, God began to accomplish His purposes through them. Each one learned that adjusting one’s life to God is always well worth the cost. You may be thinking: But God will not ask me to make major adjustments. If you look to Scripture for your understanding of God, you will see that God most certainly does require changes of His people. His
own Son gave up more than anyone: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you have no choice. You will have
to make significant alterations in your life. Following your Master means going where He goes. Until you are ready to make any change necessary to follow and obey what God has said, you will be of little use to God. Your greatest difficulty in following God may come at this point.
A major adjustment will come at the point of acting on your faith. Your intellectual decision may be the easy part. The hard part is adjusting your life to God and acting in a manner that demonstrates your faith. You may be called upon to attempt things only God can do, whereas formerly you may have done only that which you knew you could accomplish.
You can’t stay where you are and go with God in obedience to His will. To go from your ways, thoughts, and purposes to God’s will always require adjustments. These may call for changes in your circumstances, relationships, attitudes, commitments, behavior, and beliefs. Once you have made the necessary changes, you can follow God obediently. Keep in mind: the God who calls you is also the One who will enable you to do His will (1
Thess. 5:24).
When you surrender everything in your life to Christ’s lordship, you, like Elisha, will find the adjustments well worth the reward of experiencing God. If you have not reached a point where you have surrendered
everything, decide today to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow
Him (Lk 9:23).
