How can I be more flexible in responding to God?

2 Timothy 3:16-17All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

We are to use the tools of Scripture, prayer, and Christian counsel to prepare us for what God has in store for us. These resources also help us adapt to life’s changes when trials and crises come our way.

Matthew 26:39, 42, 44He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” . . . Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” . . . So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again.

We can always tell God our Father what we want, but we must always be willing to do as he pleases. We can pray like Jesus, “I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Isaiah 6:8Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”

Luke 1:38Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

We are to listen for, recognize, and willingly respond to God’s direction for our lives. This may lead to great changes in our lives—as it did for Isaiah and Mary. But just as God worked through Isaiah and Mary, God can do great things through any who are willing servants.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. . . . Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Hebrews 11:8It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.

James 2:21-23Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God.

God has a plan, but we can’t always see where all the pieces fit together. Often, God calls us to follow before explaining where we are going. Faith is essential to godly flexibility.

Jonah 3:1-3Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.

James 4:11Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.

1 Peter 1:14So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.

Obeying God completely allows us to be more flexible. Obeying God means following his call, wherever he might lead us.