Partner with God

So far in this series, we’ve looked at how the world has changed since 9/11, the threats—old and new—that we face now, and the first two steps in finding hope for that uncertain future. Today, we’re going to discuss the third: partner with God rather embrace the purpose he’s given you. 

Here’s the paradox: While only God has the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence to solve our greatest problems, he often uses humans to do his work in our world. Not robots who merely obey his commands, but partners who join him in advancing his kingdom and forging a better common good.

When the Jews were exiled to Babylon, the Lord promised that he would one day bring them back to their homeland (Jeremiah 29:10). He assured them: “I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (v. 14).

Well and good. All they needed to do was hang in there until divine deliverance came, or so they might have thought. But it was not so.

Earlier in the chapter, the Lord commanded his exiled people:

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray for the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (vv. 5–7).

As God worked, they were to work. As they worked, God would work. And we find this pattern throughout Scripture

Why God chooses us

In Matthew 9, Jesus encouraged his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (vv. 37–38). When we turn the page, we find the disciples serving as answers to their own prayer: “He called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and affliction” (Matthew 10:1).

We find this pattern throughout Scripture:

• Noah built the ark, and God shut the door (Genesis 7:16).
• Moses raised his rod, and God parted the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21).
• The Jews stepped into the flooded Jordan river, and God stopped its flow (Joshua 3:14–17).
• The people marched around Jericho, and God destroyed its walls (Joshua 6:20).
• Elijah built the altar, and God sent the fire (1 Kings 18:38).
• The people praised the Lord, and the Lord destroyed their enemies (2 Chronicles 20:22).
• A leper knelt before Jesus in faith, and Jesus healed his disease (Matthew 8:2–3).
• People brought a paralytic to Jesus, and Jesus healed his body (Matthew 9:1–8).
• A man with a withered hand stretched it out, and Jesus restored it (Mark 3:5).

I could go on. The Bible is filled with examples of divine-human partnerships whereby people do what they can and God does what they cannot.

Our secularized culture would resolve this dichotomy by claiming that we are on our own, that miracles don’t happen and faith is irrelevant to our scientific and sophisticated day. Some Christians would resolve it in the other direction, claiming that God will do whatever we have enough faith to believe him to do and that human agency merely impedes his Spirit.

The Incarnation of Jesus gives the lie to both “resolutions.” And understanding why is essential to embracing the hope God offers to each of us today.

Know your purpose

If Jesus could be both fully God and fully human, God can use humans as humans serve God.

In facing an uncertain future, it is therefore vital that we know and utilize our spiritual gifts (for help, please see our ministry’s spiritual gifts analysis here). We should also identify our personal strengths and weaknesses so as to utilize the former and avoid the latter.

And we should resolve to stay in our Father’s will each day, knowing that he always gives his best to those who leave the choice with him.

It may be his will to employ us in responding to the specific threats we’ve highlighted in this book, from jihadism to AI to pandemics to China. Your kingdom assignment may be in public service; in fact, I’m convinced that God is calling more Christians into politics than are answering his call.

Your assignment may be to serve as a missionary to Muslims abroad and/or at home. Your work may be in medical science as you help prevent and prepare for the next pandemic. You may be called into the myriad ways America will need to respond to the threat of China in the twenty-first century.

Or your kingdom assignment may be none of these. But you have one.

If I asked you to finish the sentence, “My life purpose is _______________________,” what would you say today?