Signing God's Non-Disclosure Agreement

Suggested Reading: Romans 11:33-12:2

In the television series Stargate SG-1, the United States Air Force controlled an alien device called a stargate, which was capable of instantaneously transporting people across the galaxy to any other planet which also had a stargate. The program operating the stargate was top-secret.  Several times throughout the course of the series, people were let in on the secret of the stargate but, for reasons of national security, those to whom the secret was revealed always had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, committing to abide by the top-secret status of the operations before anything was revealed to them. If they didn't want to sign the agreement, they received no information about the stargate. Never did they get to know the information and then decide if they wanted to sign the non-disclosure form. It simply didn't work that way.

In many ways, God's will operates like a top-secret government program. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul wrote, "Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge your to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God" (HCSB). Notice that the discerning of God's will comes after offering oneself  as a living sacrifice, after refusing to be conformed and having one's mind transformed. In other words, knowing God's will comes after committing to follow it, in much the same way that the revelation of top-secret government knowledge comes only after one has agreed to treat it as highly secret.

Often we struggle to know the will of God. We want to know what God wants from us and for us and we try to figure out God's plan. But often, if we are honest, we try to figure out God's will for us so that we can know if we want to follow it. That, unfortunately, isn't the way it works. Not only does God not tend to reveal His will to us until we have committed to obeying Him, but most of the time we are incapable of even understanding God's will until we have fully committed ourselves to carry it out.

Do you want to know God's will? Are you struggling with a decision and have been begging God to reveal His will? Offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice. Fully commit yourself to a way of thinking that mirrors what you see in Jesus and to complete obedience no matter where God would have you go or what God would have you do. Then you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 

Doing Research on Zealous Internet Start-ups

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 19:1-8

Logan was really excited. He had just found out about an internet start-up company that had great potential and in his excitement, he jumped into the deal, paying five million dollars for this company. The deal went through and he couldn't contain his excitement. But then the first lawsuit hit. The company Logan had purchased had stolen it's primary concept from someone else and Logan hadn't done his homework. As a result, he lost everything. He was excited. He was ready to work hard. But he didn't have the knowledge he needed to make informed decisions.

This fictional example from the series Gilmore girls, mirrors a number of times in life when we make bad decisions because we are excited but we don't have all the information. We are sincere.  We are eager. But we lack the necessary information and we allow our emotions to guide us. We fall desperately in love and marry or give ourselves away only to discover later that we really didn't know the person. We invest our money in an expensive item we're really excited about, only to discover its a piece of junk and all our money just went down the drain. We jump into an exciting job opportunity only to discover we missed some key details and now we live without any prospects, stuck in a position we hate.

One of the common problems we experience is allowing our excitement to overrule our better judgment. But Proverbs 19:2 reminds us, "Even zeal is not good without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily sins" (HCSB). Paul, also reminds us of his fellow Israelites who, though extremely zealous for God, missed salvation because their zeal was not based on knowledge and they "sought to establish their own" righteousness instead (Rom 10:3) . Being excited about someone or something can be exhilarating and sometimes we can get a thrill from just jumping into something. But acting on emotion without having all the necessary information can be not only detrimental but, according to this verse, sinful.  

Don't get me wrong, there are times when God says, "Jump," and we need to obey. But if the direct command of God isn't there, make sure you have as many facts as possible before making life-changing decisions. You'll save yourself a lot of heartache.