God’s Will and Me

By Rev. George F. Borghardt III

Upperclassmen get a funny look about this time of year. It’s part stunned deer-in-the-headlights and part crippling terror. “What does God want me to do with my life? How do I know? What if I do the wrong thing?”

These are difficult questions. When I was in middle school, I wanted to be a meteorologist. In high school, I wanted to become a chemical engineer. But when I learned in college that they didn’t wear cool black and white striped hats like train engineers, I had to reevaluate my career choice.

How do you go about answering this question? If God would just give you bread crumbs to follow, signs from heaven, or arrows along the road, you could figure out His plans for you. But God is holy. You and I are not. We’re so sinful that we don’t even know what holy is, which makes figuring out God’s will a bit difficult.

We all learned in confirmation that God teaches us what to do and not to do in His Law. What does God want you to do? Read the Commandments. Pray them. Sing them. They will tell you what God likes and what God doesn’t like. You’ll find that the things that we do, He hates. Our thoughts, our feelings, even what we want for ourselves, are so twisted by sin that it is completely different from His will.

But don’t stop with just that word from God. Yes, God hates the evil things you do. But there is another word of God, and it’s all about what God has done for you in Christ. Hear the Gospel. Listen to how the Father has sent Jesus, His only-begotten Son, to live the holy life that you and I have no clue how to live and to die the death we deserve for all the times we fail to live holy lives before Him.

God’s will isn’t a mystery to you in Christ. You’ve heard it in church.The will of God is that you believe in Him whom He has sent. He has washed away your sins in Baptism, delivering the life and death of His Son to you. He is as pleased with you as He is with Jesus. Trust His promise. That is the good and gracious will of God.

Well, that’s all fine and good, but we still have to make these decisions that affect the rest of our lives. How does this Law and Gospel business help? It answers everything. Keep the commandments on your lips; those are God’s stop signs. You know you shouldn’t do something that breaks a commandment. But after that, remember the Gospel.

Because of it, you don’t need to worry about what God wants you to do. In Christ, He has freed you from fear. He is pleased with you because of Christ.Work, apply, and strive. And trust all the more that God is going to work out the plans He has for you. Remember that what He has for you is good. How could it not be? He’s given up His Son for you.

Make every important decision prayerfully. Seek the advice of your parents. Talk to your pastor, friends, and family. Then, live in Christ, who died for you.

I never expected to be a pastor, and I never thought I’d be working with youth. But the Lord in His great mercy had some use for me as a pastor, and He’ll use me as one for as long as He wants. Then, if it’s His will, He’ll move me on to something else. He’s working it all out for my good in Christ. He’s doing the same for you too.

Don’t fear the future. Jesus has taken your sins upon Himself. In Baptism, you died with Him and rose with Him to new life, one without fear. So, pray, study, try, and do. He’s going to work it all out for you in Christ, and it will be better than you could possibly imagine. Then, after it is all over, you’ll marvel at all He did to make you who you are.

Rev. George F. Borghardt III is the Assistant/Youth Pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Conroe,TX. He serves as the Internet Services Executive for Higher Things. He is also the Asheville FOR YOU conference coordinator. His e-mail address is revborghardt@higherthings.org. Visit Bloghardt’s Reflector, his blog, at http://blog.higherthings.org/borghardt/.