Pastor Steven Furtick"/>

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.
Proverbs 25:2

There’s a reason God’s will in specific situations is so difficult to know sometimes. There’s a reason that not everything is black and white. It can be difficult to discern God’s will for a lot of situations.

Who to date.
Where to go to college.
Who to marry.
Where to move.
What job to take.

And it’s not because you’re not praying. You’re probably praying a lot. It’s not because you don’t want to know His will. You probably aren’t lacking that desire.

But according to this verse in Proverbs, it’s because God conceals.
But why? After all, that seems counterintuitive to God’s purposes and using you in them.

The reason isn’t because God doesn’t want you to know His will. He wants you to know it more than you want to know it. God has something so much greater for you instead.

Him.

God’s not up in heaven hiding His will, hoping you’ll never be able to find it. But He does play hide and seek. He doesn’t just want us to find His will, He wants us to find Him in the process. Because if His will was in plain view, we would seek it instead of seeking Him.

That’s why he conceals it. That’s why it’s so hard.

The point isn’t for God to make His will plain. His will isn’t the main objective. He is the main objective. He wants you to discover Him above all else.

As you run after God and his good, pleasing, and perfect will, remember these two truths:

God isn’t the shortcut to your best life. He is your best life.
God doesn’t want to give you the guide for your life. He wants to be your Guide.

The scariest possibility for your life isn’t getting God’s will wrong. It’s getting God’s will right but barely coming to know God in the process.

You could love the right woman but lose your first love.
You could find the right career but then make it your god.

That’s why He doesn’t just write His will for you in the clouds. At the end of the process, He wants you to know something far greater than what you should do next with your life.

He wants you to know who He is.

*This post was adapted from Hide and Seek, originally posted February 16, 2011.

Perfect?

Everyone desires to be in God’s will. But God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will might not look the way you think it should. 

We need to clear up what we mean by perfect. Otherwise, we could miss out on God’s will altogether because we’ll be too busy chasing our own daydreams.

Our idea of perfect is perfect to us.
A perfect day to you might mean everything is going the way you think it should go.
A perfect marriage to you might be one that’s easy and stress-free.
A perfect job to you might be one where you’re high on the leadership pyramid and banking loads of cash.

Those aren’t bad things, but they’re not necessarily perfect to God. The point is that what’s perfect to God is also perfect for us. God’s will for you is to become everything He created you to be, so that you might glorify Him the way that He deserves. And that doesn’t necessarily require easy circumstances or perfect conditions.

God’s will doesn’t have to be perfect to me to be perfect for me.

God’s will for Job wasn’t perfect to him. He lost everything. But it was perfect for him. It brought him to a whole new level of faith and positioned him for a double portion of blessing later in his life.

God’s will for Joseph wasn’t perfect to him. He landed in slavery and prison for over a decade. But it was perfect for him. Through him, God saved his family and an entire nation.

God’s will for Paul probably didn’t seem perfect to anyone. Few men have ever suffered so much for the gospel. But it was perfect for him. Few men have ever spread the gospel so vastly in their lifetime.

God’s will for you might not always seem perfect to you. But trust me, His will is perfect for you.

The job you hate right now might not seem perfect to you. The relationship you just lost may not look like God’s perfect will to you. The disease you’re facing certainly doesn’t feel perfect to you.

But through it, God is perfectly developing your character, creating the space you need for the person that God created you to be. And along the way, He’s putting you in position to make Him look greater than ever before.

His will may not be easy, but it’s perfect for you.

*This post was adapted from Perfect for You, originally posted December 2, 2010.

This weekend wrapped up LOVE Week 2012 at Elevation Church. Three years ago, LOVE Week started with a goal of serving 5,000 hours as a church in one week. This year, Mayor Anthony Foxx officially declared February 11th-19th as “LOVE Week” across the city of Charlotte. Thanks to our 93 partnering churches and non-profit organizations and 4,861 volunteers, we were able to serve 50,340 hours and impact countless lives for the glory of Jesus.

Along the way, we built a house, made 20,000 sandwiches for homeless children, and donated $40,000 to a free medical clinic.   This barely scratches the surface of the impact God made on our city this week. Check out some of the highlights.

This weekend, we had the privilege of sharing one of the most powerful testimonies we’ve ever seen at Elevation Church. Her story was so poignant, we built our entire worship experience around it. Meet Fasha Davis—living proof that God uses us to initiate the turning points that may actually save someone else’s life.