What does God want?

For a very long time I attended a Nazarene Church (that’s right; no dancing for me!). In fact, it’s pretty much the only church I remember attending for an extended period of time before the Christian Church I’m at now.

When we were there some funky stuff started happening. Some stuff happened with the lead pastor, and he was going in a different direction than the youth pastor (this is NOT the only reason we left, but it’s the reason I want to talk about). Eventually the youth pastor and his wife left and moved out of state. Since that day I always felt a loss. I always missed them. Recently they’ve come back, and it’s forced my to ponder the implications of why they left.

Did it really have to do with the pastor, or was there something more going on?

Did God have a plan?

How does it tie in with Agape?

It is my belief that everything happens for a reason. Maybe God didn’t want that something to happen, but it still had a reason, good or bad.

Sometimes, though, God asks us to leave a situation.

I played soccer my Freshmen year of High School and simultaneously played in the band. My Sophomore year I tried to go back to soccer, but I really wasn’t into it (regrettably, I wish I had still played). I think maybe God had a hand in that. I went on to be Drum Major in the band (something that took ALL my time and effort on top of my job) and had to usher in a new band director. The entrance of this director was not under good circumstances, and it took all the patience my girlfriend (the other DM) and I had to keep things up and running (this isn’t to say we didn’t have the help of Band Parents). Anyway, the point is there was a much bigger reason than me just losing temporary interest in soccer.

Do you think it’s easy to quit something like that? Easy to “quit” a church? Nuh uh! It takes full submission to God.

It takes us bowing down before God and saying, “I can’t see where this is going; lead me.”

I think that’s possibly what God did 3 years ago (could have been longer…) when my youth pastor and his wife left. I know it did some great things for me. And, now their back in town, wiser and ready to start a church. Isn’t that cool?

It’s not easy, though, to submit to God. It means putting aside what we want and pursuing him. Do you think my youth pastor and his wife wanted to leave? It surely didn’t appear so at the time.

Do you think King David wanted to kill all the people he did? Probably not, but it was necessary for survival.

Do you think Jesus WANTED to be persecuted and killed? Oh no. But he loves us.

Definitely not easy. My question:

How do you submit to God?

Think about it, maybe send me a comment and let me know. I’m interested.