I have struggled for years trying to discern what God wants of me. I wish He would just come sit on the couch with me one day and say, “Okay listen up, here is what I want you to do . . . I tend to think in terms of projects or things that He wants me to accomplish before I go toe up and depart this planet for good.
I have found that He doesn’t operate like that. I read a short interesting comment written by C.S. Lewis in a letter to a friend about this subject and it really touched me.
“You ask, ‘for what’ God wants of you. Isn’t the primary answer that He wants you? We’re not told that the lost sheep was sought out for anything except itself. Of course, He may have a special job for you: and the certain job is that of becoming more and more His”
More than anything God wants us to be His. The parable mentioned by Mr. Lewis, was “Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”
We once were lost but now are found and it is a time to rejoice. A relationship with God is all-consuming and is akin to the very first time we fell in love. A lovestruck couple does not consider it tedious to talk for hours, or to spend time being around each other constantly; in fact, they desire spending time together more than anything.
It made sense to me that I’ve been wasting much time trying to figure out some particular “thing” that the Lord wants accomplished. What He wants is my love. He loves me and desires the same from me. If you truly love someone you will do your utmost to make them happy, you will defend them to the death, you will want to be around them constantly, you will love and trust them, and you will do what you can to please them. This is no one-way street, in fact the apostle John states in 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”
We need to ask ourselves what we can do to make God happy, defend His name when it is disparaged, spend more time with Him, demonstrate our trust and love in Him and please Him. He wants this type of relationship with us . . . His promise in this verse in Hebrews should be our promise to Him:
Hebrews 13:5
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”