What a tremendous liberty there is, and power, in crossing over from being agenda-driven and results-oriented to a state of being agenda-free and God’s glory-oriented.In this second state, there is no worry over what must be done. There is no anxiety about what the outcome must be. There is only trust in the infinite goodness and wisdom of God, who transcends our thinking. We embrace the mystery that is God. He knows what must be done and sees to it, showing us the part we may play in His will. Our task is to tune in to Him then, not to make things happen.

This is the mind boggling simplicity and brilliance of the parable of “The Good Samaritan “as we call it. Do the good that is right in front of you to do to the best of your ability. Do what lies before every day, every hour, each moment, focusing on that and trusting that the good you are doing is being used by God in ways you may not know or even comprehend. Every situation is much larger and grander than you can realize.

My mantra while working at Outreach, Inc. with homeless youth was always, “Don’t do this to feel good. And don’t do this for the results. Do this because it is the right thing to do.” It’s amazing the difference it makes to work with that mindset.

Being agenda-driven and results-oriented just really sucks. But trusting the process by doing what you need to do every day over the long haul is satisfying and when done well, typically brings good results anyway. And it is much less stressful.

Sometimes God allows me to see the ripple effect of something I’ve been a part of. Sometimes I’m paying enough attention to actually notice it. And of course it’s usually some result I did not have in mind, that I wasn’t necessarily shooting for. And so I have to just bow before YHWH in His infinitude, realizing again that I don’t know what the heck I’m doing half the time, quite literally. All I know is to keep listening to Him and obeying the voice, trusting Him and abandoning all outcomes to Him because He is up to way more than I can even imagine. It’s awe inspiring and humbling and freeing.

Just do what God places before you each moment and trust Him in it with the goal of all glory going to Him. Wave that white flag and rest the rest of Hebrews 4 which is a ceasing of your own work and a total dependence on God.

You don’t have to make anything happen. Throughout the Bible, when God called on someone, He told them what was gonna happen. I can’t think of any instances off the top of my head in which He called on someone to go do something in their own power and they better get some results.

So our anxieties may be coming mostly because of our bad listening, half listening, or lack of listening altogether. When you hear from God, there is a clarity and a peace that cannot be touched.

In the Name of Jesus,
Soli Deo Gloria