Many people have a GPS (Global Positioning System) in their cars or on their cellphones. On your cellphone you ask someone to send you his location on WhatsApp. By clicking consecutively on the chart (location), “Directions” and “Start”, a voice starts to tell you exactly where to drive to reach that person. For example: “Turn left, at the next street to the right”, etc.
What shows us the way to go in this life? What is our life’s GPS? A Christian’s first reaction may be that it is God or the Bible. But God will, for example, not necessarily indicate which job you should accept, or even which church you should join. In his love He made us to be creative and make our own decisions within the broad guidelines of love, and not to act like robots that can do nothing apart from obeying instructions. We may therefore choose what we want to do, but we must always remember that we cannot choose the consequences of our choices.
Sometimes people open the Bible and read a piece at random which brings them true comfort and guidance. But the Bible can also be misused as a “GPS”. For example: A happily married man becomes interested in another woman. He prays, opens the Bible, and reads: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17). He then interprets “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” as a direct indication from God that he must choose the “new” woman. He maintains that God had led him to do it. The Bible must not be misused in this way.
The Lord desires that we live according to his will for us. But how do we know his will? God’s will is that we, as children of God, be radically transformed and renewed, as if we have been born again spiritually: Jesus answered: “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again” (Joh. 3:3). God’s will is therefore that our character be changed, not by ourselves, but through the Spirit of God: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, (Gal 5:22-23).
We cannot serve God before He has served us with the fruit of his Spirit. The objective with the coming of Christ was to reconcile us to God, that we be changed to align our will with his. Then we can begin to say: “I do as I wish. I am patient with people because patience is now part of my new character. I don’t steal, because I don’t want to steal – I do as I wish.”
If we always seek God’s will, we’ll find that He accomplishes his will through us in a manner that we could never have imagined. We will find that God isn’t our GPS, because He allows us to make our own decisions, but we discover the miracle: through the fruit of his Spirit He is much more than our GPS – HE HIMSELF IS AT THE RUDDER OF OUR LIVES. Paul says: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20).
Father, change me through your Spirit so that I can also say that it is no longer I that live, but Christ – in and through me. Amen.
