Don Cram

If you have a heart to do what the Lord wants you to do, you will wonder what it is, perhaps pondering what it might be as you read Scripture and praying about it day by day. Some become rather anxious, especially the younger believers, to know what it is the Lord has for them.

If you wish to know what the Lord wants you to do in the future, be busy about the Lord’s things now. Gather with other christians, take part in ministry as opportunity presents itself, pray with others, be attentive to the example and words of those older than you, and welcome the divine encounters God arranges from time to time. If you desire to know what you should do in the future, be busy about the Lord’s things in the present. He will lead you.

Abraham’s servant, who was sent back to Mesopotamia to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac, tells the story of how he was guided in Genesis 24. It may sound as if he was saying, “If the next stop light turns green before I have to stop, then I will know that God wants me to make this or that choice.” Please do not do that. Wait and see what the Lord does.

The reason Abraham’s servant could lay down stipulations of how he would be guided was that everything he did was bathed in prayer along the journey. And, more importantly, the chapter specifically says that the Angel of the Lord traveled with him. This is not a metaphor, as Abraham knew (see Genesis 18 and 19). There may have been some serious consultation before the servant dared ask for specifics to happen.

Although the requested events did happen, with other confirming factors included, the point is that God guided Abraham’s servant. He will guide you, too, if you are listening and watching as you are busy in the Lord’s work.

And now for the bad news: God probably has more than one thing for you to do in your life. What you hope will be the revelation of His plan for you will likely be just the next step on a long journey, one filled with turns and challenges you never expected. The Lord Himself will be with you.

In everyday life a sacrifice costs you something, forgoing something you want or giving up something you have. In the Bible, a sacrifice also means a payment of something due God. Nearly all the sacrifices described in Leviticus involve slaying an animal.

In the New Testament, such blood sacrifices are done away, not because they went out of fashion but because they were fulfilled in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

All the sacrifices of the Old Testament could, at best, cover or bear away sin. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, the shedding of His precious blood, did away with our sins forever.

Speaking of Jesus Christ, I John 2:2 says, “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (It would be worth your while to look up in an online dictionary the meaning of the word, “propitiation.”)

So, that one great sacrifice of Christ has removed all obligation for us to offer any more sacrifices to God, right? Wrong.

“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Hebrews 13:15f)