Pursue God’s Agenda

Pursue God’s Agenda

You have an agenda for your life. That agenda may or may not include God’s plan and His agenda. If God’s agenda for your life is not your agenda for your life, then you will be wrestling with God all your life. Your life will wear you out. On the other hand, once you understand God’s agenda and embrace it and give up your personal agenda then you will experience the peace that surpasses all understanding, and the abundant life God wants you to have.

The truth is, you have a plan in your mind on how you want your life to look like and be like. You have an agenda for your career, your retirement, your free time, your marriage, your children, etc. You have an agenda and plan whether you have thought through it or not. However, God has an agenda and plan for your life as well. Those two agendas often will collide, but there can be no compromise. You will either embrace your agenda or God’s agenda; there is no compromise on this. In most cases, many of us have not yet whole-heartedly embraced Jesus’ agenda as our own. The attitude for many of us is that we don’t mind being connected to Jesus, just as long as He doesn’t get in the way of our agenda.

Whereas, in Mark 8:34, Jesus said “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?” (vs. 34-36, NLT). Jesus is saying that if you want to follow Me then you must put your personal agenda to the side and fully embrace My agenda. Following Jesus involves dying to yourself and taking up your cross and following Him. That’s putting your plans aside and submitting to His, just like He submitted to God’s agenda for His life while He walked as a man on the earth.

Jesus pursued God’s agenda for His life with total unwavering dedication. He didn’t for once allow Himself get carried away or distracted by the crowd. His focus was to complete the mission for which He was sent. That’s why He said in John 9:4, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day, the night is coming when no one can work.” He had no time for irrelevant things. He went on to say, “Behold, I have come – In the volume of the book it is written of Me – to do Your will, O God” (Heb 10:7). 

In John 6:15, after Jesus had fed the five thousand men, the bible records that He perceived that they wanted to make Him king by force. Instead of taking advantage of such a great opportunity for prestige, fame, and enjoyment, He decided to choose the cross! His priority and focus was to do the will of His Father not the will of men and that was to die on the cross for the salvation of mankind not to be crowned by men. Indeed, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

Even when the devil came to tempt Him promising to give Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory if only He would bow to him (devil), He didn’t bulge. (Matt. 4:8-10). He stood His ground, His gaze was fixed on the heavenly mandate upon Him. He did not allow the things of this world to entice Him and shift His focus.

Jesus knew the will of God for His life and so He boldly declared as recorded in John 6:38-40, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” And then He went on to say, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Furthermore, He was not half-hearted or lackadaisical/nonchalant in His commitment to fulfilling God’s purpose for His life. He didn’t have one leg in and one leg out. He didn’t try to manage His time between fulfilling God’s will for His life and chasing His own selfish ambition/dream. He was completely resolute in sticking to that which He was sent to do. He did not permit any distractions. He threw Himself in fully to carrying out God’s call on His life with complete zeal.

He wasn’t ready to compromise the completion of His assignment in any way. In Mark 1:37-38 instead of choosing to stay with his disciples at Capernaum, as they expected He would, since they had a great reception there and there were lots of miracles, Jesus said, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.” He didn’t comprise the mission for the sake of His own convenience. He went all about doing good, healing the sick, opening blind eyes, casting out demons, delivering the oppressed, and preaching the good news as it had been written of Him by Prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:18). Also, when Peter began to rebuke Him after He told them about His imminent crucifixion and resurrection, He said, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matt. 16:23). No matter the scheme the devil tried to use in distracting Him from His mission, He remained focused and little wonder why He could say to God at the end of the day that, “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” (John17:4)

My friends, the Lord has also sent each and everyone of us into the world just as the Father sent Him (John 17:18). Each one of us has a specific mission and purpose to fulfill in God’s overall agenda of saving mankind. We are not here on earth just to occupy space, we are not here to play and gallivant around, we are not here to live for ourselves and die. We all have been sent by God to do something for Him not for ourselves. We all have a specific portion of God’s work on the face of the earth that has been assigned to us even before we were born. Have you sought the Lord to discover God’s agenda for your life? Are you living for yourself, chasing your own dreams? Has the devil succeeded in diverting your focus from God-given assignment? When your life is about to end will you be able to boldly say like Paul the Apostle, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith?” (2 Tim 4:7)

Partly culled from: https://truthappliedjs.com/gods-agenda-vs-your-agenda-mark-930-32/