Where Are You Going?
Speaker: Daniel Carandang
Written by Ana Andres
Have you ever been on a road trip?
It could be really loads of fun—full of laughter, singing, eating
snacks and telling stories with friends or family while on the road. This is
the very essence of a road trip; enjoying the journey.
However, this doesn’t mean that a road trip is just travelling
without a particular destination. Really, you’re headed somewhere. In the same way, as a person, you’re life is
headed somewhere. Someday you might become a politician, an educator, a
celebrity and the list goes on. But whether you like it or not, know where or
not, you are headed somewhere.
Most of the time, we are the ones who determine our own
destination. After all, this is our life. We are entitled to choose where we
should go. However, we forget to acknowledge our Creator. We forgot to
acknowledge the fact that He made us for a purpose, intended to carry out His
plan and not our own plans. It has become rare that people determine their
destination based on God.
“For we are
God’s handiwork, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10
What He wants for us is only what is good, pleasant, joyful and
honorable. He only wants what’s best for us. Do we really want to miss out on
this?
It sounds so easy; follow God’s plan and live a joyful life but in
reality, it’s difficult. There will be many moments in your life where you want
to go to this certain direction but God will say no and direct you to another.
It will be a constant battle between your plans and God’s plans.
So why are we
to surrender our will, and choose God’s will?
God is a Holy
God.
“I am the Lord, who brought you up out of
Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.”
Leviticus 11:45
“Holy” means set apart and what sets God apart is that there is
absolutely no sin in Him and He is perfectly pure. There is not one bit of evil
in Him but rather He is only good and His love is perfect, therefore we can
trust in Him because He has no evil motives for our lives. His intentions are
only pure and good even if sometimes that’s difficult for us to believe.
The world is full of deceivers and people who only look after
their own interests that it makes it really hard for us to imagine someone who
cares and loves us unconditionally. Nowadays, it’s difficult to become
vulnerable, to entrust our lives to another because of the amount of dishonesty
and deception we receive. Never mind, right? The only person we can truly trust
is our self, or at least that’s what other people say.
But if we truly believe that God is Holy and perfectly good, we
will allow Him to direct our paths and believe that He will stay true to His
promises. It’s difficult but it’s simple. Trust and have faith!
God knows and
wants what’s best for us.
His wisdom is limitless while ours is very limited. We may think
we know what’s best but in truth we don’t. We only know and see what is in front
of us but God sees the bigger picture. He sees everything!
With His limitless wisdom, He knows what’s best for us and not
only that,He is also the one who personally teaches us what’s best! But
oftentimes, we resort to other sources for wisdom. Most of the time, our own! Perhaps it’s
because we don’t acknowledge His sovereignty; that He is all-knowing or that we
either don’t know or believe that God only wants what’s best for us.
“This is what the LORD says--
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who
directs you in the way you should go.”
Isaiah 48:17
In
this verse, God was rebuking Israel for its disobedience.He knew the path they were taking would only lead to destruction
and indeed they experienced destructive consequences. They missed out on the
joyful blessings of God.
The choice is always ours. If we don’t want to end in destruction
then let us choose life and God’s will is life!
“The thief comes only to steal
and kill and destroy; I have come that
they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10
It is our REASONABLE RESPONSE to
Who God is and what He has done for us.
It’s
been said over and over—that He died in our place to pay for the penalty of our
sins. We’ve been so used to hearing this but if we truly understand the
magnitude of what He has done, we know that it is only reasonablefor usto respond
to this immense love of His by obeying and pursuing His will.
Maybe for some of us it’s difficult to relate to this. Perhaps
it’s difficult because if we were to be truly honest with ourselves, we haven’t
really genuinely encountered the love of God and His sacrifice on the cross
doesn’t seem to be true in our lives. It is because not unless we recognize how
wretched we are, whether we think we have sinned “big” or “small”, we will
never realize the gravity of what Jesus has done.
So today, let us choose to open our hearts and surrender to the
will of our Father!
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s
mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to
God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Romans 12:1
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