Where do we go from here?

Sorry for not being in contact recently; a bad case of shingles caught me off guard, but that got me thinking.....

Whenever thing go awry (not the way I want them to), I find myself thinking, "So where do I go from here?" If what I thought was God's plan for my life was wrong, if an illness (my own or someone else's who is close to me) stops me from studying or doing my business work, what is it that God wants me to do?

In these circumstances I have to go back to Scripture and meditate on it, and when I do so I am reminded of two things. The first is that God's moral will for my life is that, as a new creation, I bear fruit: "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:8, NIV) What is this fruit? It is the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22, ESV)) and the out-working of those fruit in acts that glorify God.

So I ask myself, "Where have I gone wrong? What sins have taken me down a path where I am so determined to have my own way that I feel angry with God for a certain turn of events? Why do I think that I know better than God what should happen in my life? Why am I not accepting where I am right now?

Secondly, meditating on Scripture reminds me of the great commission:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (Matthew 28:19).

The great commission is true north for me. I live to offer Christ to the world and glorify God. I find that things go awry when I lose sight of that fact. I can always offer Christ and glorify God today, wherever I am. I don't need to be an ordained minister and neither do you. Even if we can't see the road ahead, today - right now - we can all do these things for, and with, the people around us in all sorts of different ways. And what do you know? As you do these, you will bear fruit.

Finally, I was watching a video the other day which pointed out that there are many unreached people groups in the world, who have not heard the gospel. That is a tragedy and it is something we can all do something about, whether directly by going to these places, or indirectly by supporting them. This website tells you more:

https://joshuaproject.net

Where do we go from here? Let's all resolve, in whatever way, to honour the great commission and "go" to the places where Christ is not known, to offer Him to others, to the glory of God.