Knowing God’s Will for Your Life

I’m speaking to the sr. youth group on Tuesday, and our youth pastor asked me to speak about knowing God’s will for your life. Never a bad topic, whatever age you are. I thought I would bullet-point a few thoughts here, to get my brain and heart warmed up .

• God has a general will for everybody. For example, murder is bad! We discover God’s general will by studying the Bible.
• God has a specific will for your life. For example, I believe it is God’s will for me to speak to the youth group on Tuesday. We discover God’s specific will by praying for guidance and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
• God often doesn’t show us the whole picture at once. Often He gives us guidance based on our obedience.  The parable of the three servants in Matthew 25:14-30 is one example of this. We get the next instruction once we have obeyed the previous one.
• By paying attention to our own God-given talents and spiritual gifts, we can get an idea of what kinds of activities we should be pursuing. Yet, at the same time, God likes working with people who are outside their comfort zone. Moses was passionate about helping his nation, yet according to Exodus 4:10, he had a speech impediment.

Okay, those are my initial thoughts. Feel free to comment, especially before Tuesday, September 23, 2008.