This is a question for believers. Nothing against my skeptic friends, but I think your answer to the question would be (generally) evident. So for those of you who are followers of Christ – I ask for your thoughts.
To what degree do we determine our future and to what extent do we need to seek God’s favor for our endeavors? Let me explain further with an example. Imagine a person who wants a particular career. Maybe they want to be a designer, or a professor, or whatever you might think of. To what degree does that person need to seek God’s guidance? Do they need to pray about their choice before they go any direction, making sure they have some kind of particular answer or guidance? Or should they simply pray about it and then make a decision and go with it, trusting that God will provide? Or perhaps some other option?
I suppose it’s part of a bigger question – to what extent is God involved in the path our lives take and to what extent do we determine how things go? If I make it a goal to be successful in some particular career and down the road reach that goal, should I only thank God for it, or should I thank God but also take pride in the fact that I worked hard and had an active part in how things turned out? This of course has implications for how we deal with failure. Is it always part of God’s plan when we fail, or is failure sometimes just our fault or perhaps a stroke of bad luck?
Thanks again to my fellow believers for your thoughts – I have one final request though. I prefer thoughts that are grounded in Scripture. While it’s nice to know what you think or what experiences you have had personally, those things tend to be rather subjective. I’m hoping for a more objective answer, and since it’s a theological question, it seems Scripture is the best place to look.
I look forward to your responses and the interactions they give birth to!
Colossians 3:17: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
I think you’re missing a key point here: Anything not attributable to God is sin. If EVERYTHING good from Him, the alternative is that anything NOT from Him is bad. And remember, those “good things” are from a spiritual perspective. Not everything we deem good IS good. And not everything we deem bad is bad. Failing to give God the glory in our lives is just as Limited in our human understanding, how do we determine what is glorifying God and what isn’t? I think God’s made it clear how we can know when the Holy Spirit is working in a person – by their fruits:
Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Then it goes on to say…”Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” What does this say about passion and desires? If your desire to rise to the top isn’t led by the Spirit, then it’s your sinful nature that’s driving you, not the desire to belong to Christ.
It’s a trust thing. Trust that free will enables you to make that decision to have faith to trust that wherever you go and whatever you do in life, God will provide. (that was a mouthful). He gave you a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7), and with that sound mind it’s up to you to let the Holy Spirit work in your life or not. I don’t think you need to worry about if a certain pursuit, or your attitude about that pursuit is pleasing to God – You’ll know what’s right by your fruits.
A) Of course, I believe that all things should be to the glory of God. So be it your career, your hobby, etc., you seek that it may be in some way use to praise and honor him. Just wanted to clarify that.
B) I also am in agreement with James 1:17. Everything good is from God. But let’s look back at Job. Notice who does the bad things to Job in the first chapter of the book. It’s Satan right? But who takes the blame for it in all in the last chapter? God does (cf. 42:11). Actually he takes the blame in his conversation with Satan in 2:3 (“although you incited me against him…”). But especially in the last chapter, the point is quite clear. My point is this – really all of creation is attributable to God, so anything good that happens is of course from him. He’s so in charge, so sovereign, that it all goes back to him. But the question remains – is it attributable to him in a direct sense (i.e. an action based on a specific will) or an indirect sense (like what we see in Job)? I’m not saying that one is better or worse than the other – either way God is in charge and we can and should thank him for blessings, since without him we literally would not exist. Really though my question revolves more around the actions that are attributable to the person than to God.
C) I agree too that your desire to be successful can be sinful. Even James makes this clear to his recipients in saying that there was a problem with their hearts which showed up in the requests they were making known to God. But my question isn’t so much about the desires of the person being sinful or not. In fact, let’s just assume for the sake of the question that they are not sinful.
Maybe I should try to clarify this question. I was kind of afraid I wasn’t being clear enough anyway. Some people think you need to seek God’s guidance for everything. They believe that if you want to do something like move somewhere for a job, you should pray and ask him to show you the right path to take and wait for an answer before making a decision. Others think that God doesn’t care too much what path you take, so long as the decision has a foundation in love for him (i.e. you’re not just being greedy for money or something) and that wherever you are, you seek to bring him glory. So my question is – which is it? Or is it something entirely different?
Let me start off by saying that I believe in prayer.
However, it’s a fact that many people out there are enjoying great success without any notion to include God in their lives. I would say this is because nothing is as solid as as a person’s drive to become something great. Many people act on their passion for something and achieve it while many others pray about their passion and achieve nothing. What’s going on there?
I believe that hard work and determination are the jewels of success. However, there’s a really good way to do it: prayer. Prayer WITH action is so good. A person who is headstrong and determined WHILE relying on God to help inspire them not only can have the success they want, but also have the opportunity to be level-headed about it as well. In other words, when/if failure comes they will just use their drive AS WELL AS their reliance on God to see the finish line. The same goes with great success.
I’d say it’s about including God in your life; on purpose.
Now we get into the realm of exactly HOW God lets us know which path to take. I’m a pretty skeptical person, we can’t know for a fact that God was the author of the events in our lives that lead us down specific path.
Can He do that? Sure.
Does He do that? Probably, we can’t know for sure.
And we certainly can’t know whether or not God speaks directly to us today. There are many people who actually believe that God speaks to them directly, either in the heart or mind. I’m also skeptical about that as well.
I also think God sometimes treats us as children in the sense that God probably isn’t micromanaging every single aspect of our lives. We’re free to make mistakes, and learn from them. We’re free to explore new career locations, and other life situations.
We don’t know whether or not God directed Aquila and Priscilla to the humble career of tentmaking. But we DO know that God used their profession as a tool to further the kingdom.
It’s been my experience that all of my career choices so far, even though they’ve been rough at times, have all worked out for the better. I believe God “guard, guides, and protects us” even during the times we don’t ask for His help.
In order to properly address this question with Scripture, it’s going to take me a while to piece everything together. I hope to post again within the week. For now, there are my extra-Biblical thoughts.
You ask the question well: to what extent? Because there is a degree to God’s involvement. It’s a spectrum. On one end, we have God taking full control and we are essentially robots without free will. On the other end, God does absolutely nothing in our lives and everything is left to us on our own. The Bible doesn’t teach either of these things.
To find where God’s involvement is on that spectrum, I don’t think we can pin point one thing and be done with it. As I suspect I will find in Scripture, God has more involvement in some areas and less involvement in other areas. But my assumption here will be tested as I look at what God has said in the Scriptures.
i think when findin out a path to take you should look at what the job entails and how it will affect your life with God. he is to be our everything so if you career interferes with your relationship with him quit. it says somewhere if your right hand causes you to stumble cut it off. so yes pray and go on with your life as a christian.
Ah, Job! Forgot about him – great example on how some of the stuff we consider absolutely horrible is only bad to US, not God. I think we’re on the same page – I just was rushed when I wrote and sounded cantankerous instead of encouraging. 🙂
Let me try to be concise: I don’t think it matters if you “consult” God on specific stuff because you’re already consulting Him by default by putting your life in His hands to begin with. If you’ve already accepted His grace and you’re striving for holiness, then there’s no need to worry incessantly over whether what you’re doing is better or worse than another thing. For a true child of God, there’s a million and one different paths you can take that are all “strait and narrow” 🙂
Thanks for all the thoughts everyone!
@Jordan, you point out exactly what I’m thinking of – there are indeed successful people who have no reliance on God at all in any personal sense. Actually that’s what made me think of this question, if I remember correctly. John Mayer in his “Where the Light Is” album says something of this nature to the crowd: “I made a lot of things happen for myself.” And I was wondering about that statement in light of God’s interaction with the world.
@Mike, you’re wrong. Shut up. J/k … yeah, the idea of God micromanaging things isn’t particularly where I lean, but on the other hand, I do see things in Scripture that suggest every part is directed by him. After all, it was Jeremiah who wrote “I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). So some verses seem like all our steps are directed by him. But I see other things that seem to suggest it’s not all directed by him, but that he lets us make our own decisions, be those good or bad in a practical sense. How do you view the Jeremiah 10:23 verse and others like it?
@Swango, I’ll look forward to your response. Especially if it involves you holding out your hand saying “proof.”
@Travis, for sure – we need to include God in our choices. If a job requires you to lie or cheat, that’s obviously not a direction God is going to bless. A very important point for people to recognize. Whatever I may not know, I know this – God will not approve of or bless sin. That doesn’t mean he won’t bless sinners, but the sin is not his will.
@Amy – no worries! I didn’t take offense to anything! And yes, I kind of felt like we were on the same page, but your clarification makes me more certain. I feel the same way, but as I told Mike, i still see verses like Jeremiah 10:23 that make me wonder about the degree to which we should seek direct guidance.
I’m holding out my hand saying, “PROOF.” But since you can’t see it, I’ll just give you a link instead.
http://dosswangos.blogspot.com/2010/09/gods-involvement-in-our-lives.html