The other day I was listening to a conversation that Daniel and one of his friends were having in the car. They were laughing and talking about your typical little boy things; playing video games, ect. I was half listening, half tuning them out, but my ears perked up when they started talking about McDonald’s. They decided that when they grow up they both want to work there. Daniel wants to work there so he can eat all the free choc chip cookies he wants. I secretly laughed to myself. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with working at McDonald’s. But I guess as a mother, I was hoping he would say something like, an Army man like his daddy, or a Pastor, or architect. He loves building with his legos. After I thought about it for a minute, I wished that I could back to the age of 5 and not have to worry about my future, or who I want to be. To Daniel, he loves choc chip cookies from McDonald’s, so why not work there to get them free?
As a Youth Pastor, I get lots of questions on how do you know what God wants you to do with your life? It’s a hard question. I know that I have spent a long time in prayer asking this question for myself. I’ve come to realize that our answer is in the Bible, it’s the same for everyone. First we were created to worship God and have a personal relationship with God. 2nd, is the Great Commission. It is was Jesus told us to do when He ascended to Heaven. We are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Now does this mean that I need to pack up and go all over the world to preach the Gospel? If the Holy Spirit tells me too, than yes, I would go. Not everyone is called to be World Missionary. But everyone is called to be a Missionary were you are. Did you catch that? We are supposed to tell our friends and family about Him, we are supposed to go out in our community and tell people about Jesus. We’re not supposed to keep His precious gift of salvation to ourselves. How selfish we are when we are not sharing His love with others!
Of course there are other areas where God may call you. For me, being a Youth Pastor, and a Writer. I have long ran from that calling of writing. I’ve tried so many other things, thinking that I needed to have a “real” career, a real job. But God has given me this amazing gift of writing, and there is nothing wrong with it! My mind set has changed. What a great avenue for God to use me in. I don’t care about becoming a famous writer. But if just one of books, one thing that I say on this blog, if it changes just one person’s life, it’s worth it.
Psalm Chapter 20:4 says: “May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”
The desire of our hearts must line up with God’s desires. If you are following God and living your life for Him, then guess what? His desire’s will be your desires. Whatever you do, do it to Glorify God. What is your motives? Is my motive to make Erin Howard a famous Author and become wealthy? No. My motive to bless someone else, to change someone’s else life, to tell others about Jesus. And I know that in return, that I’m going to be far more blessed than just to make Erin Howard famous. God will bless me, so I can be a blessing to someone else. Is Jacob and I Youth Pastors, so we can make money and have the largest numbers of youth around? I hate to break it to you, but no. We don’t make money, we don’t get paid. We don’t have the largest youth in the county. But we are blessed. We want to make a difference in a teenagers life. To let them know that there is a hope out there, and His name is Jesus.
So ask yourself this question as we close today. What is the desire of your heart? What is God’s desire? And is God’s desire and your desire the same? If your desire is not bring Glory to God, check your self. Check your motives. Ask God to make His desires your desire. We all have to check our selves, all the time. It’s easy to get caught up in doing things for ourselves. If that happens, we pray, we set our focus on God and our motives on God, and we keep going. Keep pressing on!
Hugs,
Erin
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