Knowing God's Will

"For it is God who works in you, 

both to will and to work for His good pleasure." 

- Philippians 2:13

I finished Week 10, and if this was SCU I’d be 100% done with the quarter and heading into finals. But this is QUT and I have three more weeks of lectures and one study week (aka real dead week) before final exams. I’m getting restless and impatient; unfortunately, I don’t have the attention span or long-term memory for anything that lasts more than 11 weeks. It also doesn’t help that the weather is getting warmer, and Jacaranda Trees are blooming! They are so pretty (but I'm never in the right position to take a good pic), but rumour has it that if a flower falls on your head, you will fail an exam. Help. 

Jacaranda Tree (from Pinterest)

It’s been a mentally and spiritually challenging week, but it’s been good 😃 . I wrote a report on Discrete Fourier transforms, and this was the first time I went to the library and used a textbook. It reminded me of homeschooling haha. But it’s done and only worth 10%. Time to work on the research essay on glam rock and bricolage worth 60% of my final grade…

 As my stay in Australia races past halfway, I am faced with the reality that I am going home soon, and life will be back to what it was like before the trip. I thought a lot about what I want to do differently but was reminded many times that circumstances will not necessarily change, but my attitude that can make a difference. My focus should not be on myself, but on the One who freely gives the opportunities and privileges, and can just as freely take them away. Once again, God showed me how quickly He answers prayers when I actually surrender a situation to Him. 

On Thursday, some people from our fellowship threw a surprise birthday celebration for one of the leaders, Victor. We got into his apartment (his cousin gave us one of the keys), put on Darth Vader and Storm Trooper masks, and stood by the door, and waited for him to come home after dinner. It was quite successful and a good time hanging out :) I spent so much time with them this week: prayer meeting on Tuesday, birthday on Thursday, worship night on Friday, CDS on Saturday (see below), and church on Sunday. 

Happy Birthday, Victor!

Yesterday I went to CDS (Christian Discipleship School) hosted by Hope Church and attended the class “Knowing God’s Will.” It was really informative and helpful, and some points especially spoke to me: 

-One of the facilitators asked us to think about something we are seeking God’s will for and phrase it as a yes/no question. Now imagine God answered “yes,” or He answered “no.” How would you feel? This activity illustrated that our own desires often cloud our ability to hear from God. I have to admit that when I pray for God to show me His will, I usually want God to answer one way, my way. Am I OK when God’s answer isn’t what I want? Am I humble enough to obey?

-Sometimes God doesn’t reveal His will to us because we’re not mature enough! 

-You can walk through the right door with the wrong attitude. Our relationship with God is more important than our character is more important than what we do (Relationship > Being > Doing), yet all three are inter-connected and crucial in our walk and discovering God’s specific will for us. 

-God’s specific will is within God’s general will (duh!). His general will is in the Bible. Read it and JUST DO IT. I'm guilty of looking so hard for God's specific will for me without diligently obeying His commands in the Scripture out of love. It goes back to the relationship, spending time in His presence and His word, being filled with the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to be Lord of my life. I need to stop asking “What is God’s will for me?” but simply ask, “What is God’s will?” Salvation for all people, and for us to know Him, love Him, and glorify Him. It's pretty simple, but we often make it too complicated by focusing on ourselves. 

-When God gives us a passion for something, we may not understand how it fits into our life until later down the road. Just because we get a glimpse of what will be doesn’t mean it has to happen right now or anytime soon. We need to be patient and wait for God’s timing. 

Last night, I volunteered at the 65 Roses Gala Ball. Since I was at CDS all day, I told the organiser I would be available in the evening, so he put me in the “bump out crew,” aka cleanup. I went earlier because I wanted to see what it was like before it ended, and boy it was fancy! It reminded me of SCU’s Golden Circle, also a fundraiser event (black-tie + fancy three-course dinner + smoke machines + live music). The volunteers were served food that nice SCU events would serve. Anyway. Since I was early and the event was running late, I helped sell raffle tickets for prizes, one of them being Rachel’s Ring (worth $50k and picture below. Every $100 got you one of 300 keys, which you used to try to open the glass box the ring was in. Only one worked.). There were also smaller prizes where tickets were “One for $10, 3 for $20, and 8 for $50.” I became an expert at ripping off raffle tickets ;). 

65 Roses Gala

When all the guests finally tried their keys (and someone did indeed open the box!) and the raffle prizes drawn, the bump our crew went and dismantled all the table decorations. I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of one, but each centrepiece was three pineapples stacked on top of each with fairy lights, topped with palm leaves (it looked like a palm tree with Christmas lights). The base was covered in gold rocks. We had to throw out almost 150 pineapples and collected buckets of really heavy rocks, but it was all done by 12.30am. I got a free taxi ride home, so it was all good :). 

Ugh I need to stop picking at my scab and go to sleep. Thanks for reading, and have a blessed Sunday!