"What is God's will for me?" has to be the most asked question by believers today. How do you know for sure what direction to take when it's time to make a decision, or a change? "I know the Bible is God's word," you may say. "But how do I find out what God is saying to me today?"

Scripture tells us:

1. Present yourself to God as "a living sacrifice." That means to release the part of you that wants to control your actions into the hands of a loving Guide, who knows what's best for you. The willingness to do this comes first.

2. Secondly, the same mind that is self-centered needs to be renewed. Since God is Spirit, your own spirit needs His quickening. Jesus said to Nicodemus (and to us), "...unless one is born again (Or 'from above') he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) We cannot know God's word unless we both live in the same kingdom, the spiritual kingdom.

3. We take our directions from Jesus Himself. Remembering Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, we find Jesus, the man, preparing Himself in prayer to His Heavenly Father for the great sacrifice for which He had been sent. His soul cries out in great turmoil, at the same time surrendering with these words, "...not My will, but Yours, be done." (Luke 22:42)

Are we willing, not necessarily to die physically, but to give over our will to whatever the Father is calling us to be or not to be, to do or not to do? When we are willing, ready to give up our own desires, our hold on our own life, then He can indeed use us, and we will know what His will has been for us all along!

These words that follow sound familiar, much like others the Lord has given me. It must be because they are important and He really means it!