Your Assignment, if you choose to accept it...
Remember how all those "Mission Impossible" episodes (or movies) began? There was always this dramatic assignment given, the offer to accept it or not, and then the message was destroyed.
I don't think I ever saw an episode or movie in which the hero said, "Naw, thanks for the offer, but I have something better to do."
They always accepted the assignment.
Have you been praying that prayer? I hope you have. Here it is for a third time,
"God, our desire is to do what You want us to do and to be who You want us to be."
It's a powerful prayer of surrender. It is a prayer that automatically accepts the assignment given, before the assignment is ever communicated. That's what faith and discipleship is all about: surrendering to God's assignment.
Remember the story of Paul (also called Saul)? Recall how he was terrorizing the church? He even secured a warrant for the arrest or execution of believers. On the road to Damascus he met the Lord. That was the beginning of the journey. Nearer the end of the Journey, (in Acts 21, Paul is arrested and then behind bars he recounts his calling), and he tells his captors, I asked the Lord, "What shall I do?" And then Jesus instructed him to go into Damascus saying, "There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do." (Acts 22:10).
God had a specific plan and assignment for Paul. He has an assignment for all of us. Our challenge is to discover exactly what that assignment is, for us as individuals and for us as a body of believers. How do you determine the assignment? (It doesn't show up in a self-destructing tape-recorder).
In his book, Living the Life God has Planned, author Bill Thrasher, makes the following suggestions:
- Believe that God has a will for you
- Continually listen to God
- Continually pursue the peace of God
We know God has plans for us. He tells us (Jeremiah 29:11). Jesus reminded us that his sheep recognize His voice (John 10:27). [By the way, you learn to listen to his voice by reading God's word, praying, being in community, worship---it all comes down to the spiritual disciplines---and if I am not doing those things, I will not hear Him.] Jesus calls us to follow Him into peace (John 14:27).
If you don't know your assignment, your assignment is to listen and find it. If you know your assignment, well then, you really don't have a choice do you?
"God, our desire is to do what You want us to do and to be who You want us to be."
