Do you know what God is doing in your life right now?
Several years ago, a friend of mine (Mael) started asking his friends this simple question: “What has God been doing in your life lately?”
Perhaps because we spent so much time with Mael and his wife Cindy over about 6 years… perhaps because they showed that they really did care about people… perhaps because they so easily shared what God was doing in their lives… perhaps because the question focused on the present activity of God and not only on the past activity of God… perhaps because of Mael’s accent… for whatever reason, that question stuck with me.
I still think about it from time to time, and I still like to ask others what God is doing in their lives. In fact, I still enjoy looking into my own life and asking myself what God is doing in my life.
So, a few years ago, I started asking this question on my blog. Every year or so, I publish a post like this asking my readers this question: “What has God been doing in your life lately?”
I think it’s very encouraging for us to share our lives with one another – even online. And, it’s always encouraging to hear about what God is doing in and through his children around the world.
So, would you share part of your life with us? What has God been doing in your life lately?
Good question. Lord, what are You doing in my life right now?
I usually realize what He is doing in me only after a period of time passes by and I fail miserably, and then He has mercy on me to show me that without Him I am nothing IN THIS PARTICULAR respect also! So right now, I think He is working on adjusting me, perfecting me, blending me, and building me up with my dear wife and with the dear saints in the small setting He put me in. And even though sometimes I react not that positively, He wants to simplify me and reduce me that I may be buildable and blendable, just a normal functioning member in the Body.
But, what do I know? Lord, again, what are You up to in my life? I open to You – whatever is in Your heart concerning me, Lord, DO IT!
I was contemplating this on my bed last night as I prepared to rest. I’ve found myself inexplicably drawn into a greater desire for prayerful communion with Him. I never thought it was lacking in the past but I’m desiring more, in spite of myself. In a world that seems more chaotic and a greater spiritual battlefield than ever before, His Peace is becoming a recognizable hallmark in me.
My confidence in Him has increased, not because I’m feeling more faith filled or trusting Him more, but I know this because it’s become even more deep within me and there is less of an intellectual application and more of an internal ‘knowing’ that comes from outside of me.
There is an excitement and anticipation as I see God preparing and orchestrating the ‘good works He’s prepared in advance for me to do (eph 2:10) All the while, a quiet confidence has grown in me. It’s been nothing that I’ve done or tried to do–but I recognize it as God at work in me. It brings a great joy even when the outside seems incompatible with such joy.
He is in my life and He is infinitely able to complete my purpose.
He is my redeemer and my best friend, so all of my life is dependent on this.
He is continuing to reveal Himself in every aspect of creation.
He has shown me I belong to Him and that makes my life significant.
Sometimes people ask this question and their intention is to qualify an individual’s testimony.
They might be asking what are you doing with the talents you’ve been given.
Nothing is so awe inspiring as the revealing of His nature. Everything else is a paper sky.
I am enjoying this blog so much, God has revealed others who share perspectives I thought were lost.
Thanks Alan,
G
A simple question that requires a complex answer…
I’m here (found this blog) through no coincidence (don’t hold to those). I find myself attending a traditional (i.e. ‘modern’) church after having extensive experience in New Testament assemblies. However, as I understand it, one of our purposes is the ‘mutual edification’ of each other.
Now we’ll just have to see how this goes! 🙂 I’m still learning that where He leads, I follow. Nice to be here!
Ron
God seems to constantly be telling me from every place possible to be still & know HE is Lord. Stop striving. Let go. Release. SLOW down.
There is a constant daily message to me of …. look at ME, randi. focus on ME, Randi. walk with ME, my daughter. THAT is your job. Make me your focus. That is your part in this story. Your part is the surrender. Your part is the receiving. Walk with me. come close to me. look at me! I will do the rest. Yes you’re going to fail & wander & make mistakes – but I am still right here. Your detours won’t thwart my plans. My plan is the plan. I am the Creator, the author & the everything. Trust me.
Specifically, He has continued to lead me to let go of a lot of “things” in my life. Activities, facebook, etc. And seems to be helping me focus on those things right close to me that He has put in my life. He is reminding me that I will only be a mom to 3 and a wife to 1 and that however else He is going to use me will happen in HIS time – for now, I must focus on loving those closest to me first and allowing HIM to work in their lives, being patient and allowing Him to lead us.
Specifically – because of our personalities (and not because of our gender) I see God helping me to really allow my husband to lead and wait for him to take initiative in more things. To stop running all over him and rushing ahead of him. He is a very phlegmatic personality & I’m a driver/outgoing personality so God is helping me fight my sinful nature that wants to control and impatiently push forward rather than being patient & kind.
Since leaving church-as-business in 2009 ish, we have continued to still look for the Church in our daily/weekly lives. We meet as a church in our home weekly with 4 or 5 families. I am part of BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) with my 2 youngest girls and we are studying Genesis and I LOVE this study!! Watching the Lord woo & love Abraham has been so amazing. The way He has taken care of each character in this story just has build up so much trust in me. His patient & mercy & grace — WOW! How did I never get all this from Genesis before!?
I host a ladies group which has 5 ladies in my little neighborhood and a few others from outside of our neighborhood but all in the local area. We are going through 1000 gifts by Ann Voskamp which I LOVE!! This is the exact same message I’m getting from Genesis. Slow down. Look around. Trust the Lord. Look for Him in all things. Know that *all* things are gifts, because all is grace. All things are gifts, because He is sovereign & He does work all things for our good. Will you trust Him? Will you trust Him – not to do what you want Him to do… but trust Him? No. Matter. What He allows & does. Great, hard, faith building questions!!!
And I tell you all those specifics to explain what my part has been in all this. This has all truly been God’s work alone because all I have been doing these past few years is learning more and more how to focus on HIM and SURRENDER. I KNOW this is a lifetime journey and that I have my whole life to go haha — but by taking little steps to say “YES” when He asked me to go meet a new neighbor…. by taking the risk to look like a weirdo girl who knocked on neighbors doors when I saw kid’s bikes out front… or to put myself out there knowing I would hear a lot of, ” no thanks”… and things like that……. He has just blown me away!! I just said YES when God asked me to be intentional about meeting the people right around me – and who would have thought there were so many searching for godly relationships & desiring to get into Christ-focused relationships right around me! I don’t even remember al l the people over the past 5 years that have rejected my invitations. There have even been a few new friends that grew up in a very different traditions than the rest of us and didn’t know the Lord personally that have come to know Him in such an intimate way now!! By keeping it simple & just walking close to Him and showing others they can do the same — He has done so much! Only God could have managed this. Even specifically with my ladies group – only God could have done this! Our kids are all the same ages, we all moved into the area around the same time. It’s amazing!! HE is trustworthy & HE can & will organize relationships)! HE is trustworthy to BUILD HIS CHURCH – we can surrender & submit. (Ephesians 5 — which really started my journey in 2008 to look away from the church-as-business we were apart of and to see what the role of the Church was and opening my eyes to His true Church!)
I have been praying for God to bring me relationships like this for soooo long…. and it has been worth the wait & it has been in His perfect timing! Only He knows how long we will have each other but I can see what He is doing right now and it’s beautiful!
I’d say one of the major factors in how He has been able to use me came when I stopped trying to ‘start’ something myself. It really took a lot of humbling steps over these last years to just release lots of different dreams/desires I had for my own life and SURRENDER to however GOD desired to use me – not what I wanted to do in my life. He has continued to shift my eyes to ‘smaller’ more obscure, insignificant things than what I was looking at before….. and to simply look around to whatever is already in my life, close to me. I can’t say this is some sort of a formula or what GOd will ask of everybody…..but all I know is that I am looking at very small things.
This will always be a battle to focus my eyes on Him and stop my own self efforts and my own definitions of “success” but I see Him molding & changing me bit by bit. I wonder if SOME day there will be anything that comes as easily & quickly as I desire… probably not… and that’s probably a great thing.
Even if all this changes & these relationships separate & we all move away from each other — I am encouraged! I know how He used me in such a small way. I am content with how insignificant this all seems in the world.
When I released (and honestly cried quite a bit over) the dreams I had for my own life and how *I* wanted to be used…. God started to use me.
One of my first tastes of the surrender process!! It’s amazing how letting GO of things & just obeying in small things in our daily lives will make the biggest difference.
HE is the potter. I am the clay. My role is to surrender to His molding!!! The potter gets all the glory for how HE uses me!! Whether I’m the little dish that the teacup sits on that really has no great purpose – or the tea pot itself who makes the whole teaparty possible – “whatever”!!!
Focusing on the Lord – such a simple message.Focus on Jesus & nothing else…. I sometimes doubt & wonder if I’m just really immature in my walk even though I’ve known Him for so long….I mean this is pretty ridiculous. And some days I wake up like…. oh my goodness – who do I think I am….I can’t do xyz or be part of xyz….but then I just remember that I KNOW the Lord — and He is in me and that’s really all I need to pass on. I can’t teach a lot of theology or anything really… but I know Jesus and I know He loves me. I can encourage somebody to run to Him! Many people look at my faith and say things like, “aww you’re so sweet.” or awww I remember when I felt so passionate about Jesus” or “aww you remind me so much of myself when I first accepted Jesus”
I guess I’ve just become content with knowing that’s the faith God gave me and that is how He wants me to be… because the more I seek intellectually, the more I read & learn about Him, the more I grow in my walk with Him… the more simple & basic it seems to get. I just won’t ever be an intellectual apologetic… and that’s okay. Perhaps it’s just because of how He desires to use me in the Body. But I’m okay with always having that zealous, simple faith (and the treatment that I have to endure sometimes because of it). Ask me again in 10 years – but for right now, I’m okay with it.
I think that’s all!! lol thanks for listening! 🙂
Are you gonna answer this question, Alan!? I love this question and find myself asking it often!! I probably heard it here first a long time ago.
oh wow… sorry.
are you sorry you asked?
around these parts people know not to ask me that question unless they are sitting down 🙂
Stefan –
I love what you said and totally agree. key words stuck out that I really relate to.
small setting (focusing on relationship with spouse & others)
and simplifying me!
I apparently haven’t allowed Him to simplify my commenting yet….. but many other ways He has simplified everything for me!!
Get over yourself and start really listening to other people!
We’ve been in religious detox for 5 or 6 years. I’ve pretty much stayed away from public ministry situations anywhere except nursing homes and homeless shelters. Talk about tradition and traditionless.
All of the sudden a buddy called and we’re leading worship again in a Celebrate Recovery meeting in a mega church with some messed up people who are really hungry for God. The “kabod” has come into that happy-clappy place. I really never expected that at all. We’ve dealt with a lot of messed up people – most of whom had no desire for God – so this is such a blessing. I wish church people really knew how messed up they are and how much they really need HIM.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (assuming they have very little now) – for they shall be filled.
Thanks everyone for taking part and for answering my question. I had not ulterior motive other than encouraging people to think about where they are with God and what God is doing in their lives.
As for me (thanks for asking, Randi), God is continuing to teach me to take the focus off of myself and my plans and to instead focus on what he’s doing both in me and also in the people around me. Unfortunately, this is something that he’s constantly having to teach me, remind me, convict me, etc. Just this week, God presented me with an opportunity to interact with someone, and I ignored the person because I was in the middle of doing something else.
-Alan
I’m a bit late to the conversation, but I still want to share what he’s saying to me.
There are several things.
1 – Start having conversations with more people in the town where I live. I began today by buying two coffees in Caffe Nero and taking them to the guy selling ‘The Big Issue’ outside Waitrose.
I offered him one and he was glad to have it. I discovered he is Romanian, has been in the UK for 5 or 6 years, and has still not managed to find regular work. His name is Daniel, I’ll stop to talk with him again.
2 – Pay more attention to networking with other groups of believers in the area around the town. This is something I used to do much more than I do now. The Holy Spirit is definitely calling me to pay more attention to this.
There are other things too, but these are the top two.
Father continues to lead us into living out lives fueled by His agape. Leaving behind more and more the efforts to make clear who we’re NOT (religious) and more fully embracing who we ARE (ones seated now with Christ).
I’ve personally been overwhelmingly compelled to reach out to the poor and hurting in our community. Not with grandiose, organized endeavors with logos and tshirts but with my day-to-day life. It’s time the Body of Christ is once again known for caring for those who are hurting. Become increasing less attached to the comforts of this world and run after the eternal.
That’s it in a nutshell for me here in Northeast Georgia.
God is teaching me what it means to follow Jesus in real community, rather than the idealized version I thought was possible. He is also teaching me to see all of history, including my own, as a salvation history, even in the middle of all the mess.
Thanks again for continuing to share what God has been doing in your life lately. I recognize many of these works in my own life as well.
-Alan