Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Modern Christians in the West seem to have three most pressing concerns. They are important, and should not be minimized. I would identify these three concerns as relevance, worship, and purpose. The third of them, purpose, is addressed in very simple terms in Psalm 138:8. Here the Psalmist affirms that “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me” (ESV). This should be the confidence of every Christian. While we are agonizing over decisions, hoping for divine guidance, the Lord is actively directing us.
As I say this, I recognize that there are a few, maybe more than a few, teachers who somehow find God speaking to them supernaturally and frequently. The rest of us may wonder why we don’t hear God’s voice telling us whether to get on the elevator or take the stairs. Maybe we are inferior.
In fact, the Lord will fulfill His purpose. He will direct us in the way we should go. He is, after all, sustaining all His creation. We are always receiving God’s guidance, but most of us seldom realize it. The places we go, the people we meet, the calls we miss and the calls we answer, all have a purpose. Occasionally we might understand the purpose. Normally we are unaware of it. But the Lord is not unaware of any of it. He uses those encounters as part of our human context, as part of His gracious care for us and for others. No life is purposeless. To say it is actively denies the God who has ordered all things by His grace.
Lord, do Your will in your people.
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