During my healthcare career, I worked hard, delivered big results, and was constantly looking toward my next step up the leadership ladder. When an opportunity arose, I always prayed about those job interviews (as any good Christian would). “Dear God, I really want this job. If it’s Your will, please let me get this.” I could just see how God had been preparing me for the position through all my past experiences. I was sure I would be such a blessing to so many people if God put me in the role.
Then I wouldn’t get the job.
What I would get is upset, discouraged, and even angry. Obsessing over it in my own head, I would find ways to criticize the process, the interviewers, and the successful candidate. For the longest time, I had a big blind spot: despite what I said when I prayed, I really wasn’t seeking God’s will. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have reacted the way I did: bitter, angry, and judgmental.
In reality, I was concerned about getting my will, not God’s. I knew what I wanted, and I just wanted God to agree. This can happen so easily for us when there’s an opportunity we desire, a problem we need solved, or an illness we want healed. We come to God convinced we know what’s best and trying to persuade Him to give it to us.
This is such a different attitude than Jesus Christ. In John 4:34, Jesus told His disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” Can we honestly say that? Do we start and end each day thinking about how to do what God wants done? Are our career choices, financial decisions, and relationships focused on accomplishing His work in our lives and the world around us?
Jesus shows us what it looks like to make what God wants what we want. As we do, it frees us from anxiety, anger, and bitterness. It opens us up to experiencing joy and contentment in every circumstance. As you live life with all of its opportunities and disappointments, what do you really want? To be an abundantly living follower of Jesus, we must truly want to do God’s will and to accomplish His work.