Editor's Notes

"What does God want from me?" This is an excellent question for everyone to ask, and answering this question honestly is the first step toward living a life in tune with His will.

For many of us, our natural tendency is to assume that He would want us to do something that would appear large—either in effort or in result; something that would really (in our eyes) "make a mark" on society or be remembered for years to come. The danger in this is that we may end up mixing our desires with God's will, and though the general path we take may appear to be of His choosing, the resources, goals, and motivations may be entirely our own.

"But if I do ___, then I'll have more ___ to use for Him" is our common rationalization for continuing in such paths. The question we need to remember is, "Would the Lord really want me to offer back to Him something that He didn't want me to have in the first place?" Read the story of Saul's "partial obedience" in 1 Samuel 15:1-26 for God's answer to that question. If Saul and the people had really intended to sacrifice the spoils of victory to the Lord (and I'm not so sure that they did), it would have been quite a sacrifice—a very large thing in the eyes of all who would have seen it. But what did the Lord say? "To obey is better than sacrifice."

As we each seek to answer the question, "What does God want from me?" let us be very careful to not mix up our own ideas and desires with His—to not substitute our rationalizations for the simple obedience that is so precious to Him.

—T. Don Johnson