Bishop Wills' Life Journal Entry for May 28, 2008 -- "My Projects or God's Will"

S: Romans 9: 31 (The Message)
How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they did not notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road.

O: It all comes down to being obedient to God and trusting where God is leading even if we cannot see the results at this point.

A: This morning I am aware of how often I try to come up with good ideas which will help churches to grow. In a way, these become my “God projects”. I can easily get absorbed in them to the point the focus becomes “me” instead of following the teachings of Jesus and being led by the Holy Spirit.

In the Bible someplace it says: “God’s ways are not our ways”. This is where I can often get tripped up. If I do not stay daily in scripture and prayer, I find myself adopting the thinking of the world and trusting my own “good ideas”.

Trusting God and trying to live the way Jesus would live if he were in my body is hard work. I would much rather trust in what I can see rather than trust in the leading of the Holy Spirit which I cannot see. I spend my day searching for God’s Will and here it is right in scripture each morning. Paul quotes Isaiah in the last verst of chapter 9 in Romans: “Careful! I’ve put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion, a stone you can’t get around. But the stone is me! If you are looking for me, you’ll find me on the way, not in the way.”

P: Father lead me today in the living of my life. Help me to have more faith with those things I cannot see and forgive me when I live only by what I do see. Forgive me for my own thinking of how to run life. Walk with me today so I live by faith and act in the ways Jesus would act if he were in my place today. Love, Dick

Y: I give up only what I can see and will trust the leading of the Holy Spirit in what God, the potter, decides to do with my lump of clay.