If you want to know what God’s purpose is for your life, yet you struggle with hearing His voice, join the club. Even if we are disciplined enough to turn off the TV, put down our mobile devices, slow our schedules, and be still for a few moments, life still seems to be a blur.
Do you wake up some days realizing that you have too much to do and have too much stuff cluttering your home? So you apologetically step out of commitments. You make a trip to Goodwill after cleaning out your closet and garage only to repeat the cycle again.
Do any of these things complicate your life?
- Over-commitment – Most families have both parents working outside the home and each kid involved with multiple activities. Every moment of every day scheduled. Never any down time. We don’t know how to sit still anymore.
- Worry – When worry preoccupies our thoughts, we create scenarios in our mind, many that won’t ever materialize.
- Selfish motives – We want things our way. This makes it hard to work well with others. Life is less complicated when we do things together.
- Lust – We see what is not ours and want it. We lack contentment. Lust causes broken relationships, financial debt, and the absence of fulfillment.
- Laziness – I don’t necessarily mean not working, even though that definitely complicates life. Rather I am referring to the putting off to tomorrow what needs to be addressed today. Things like getting out of debt, spending quality time with your children, writing a will, and so on.
- Rebellion – Simply refusing to do things God’s way complicates life. I’m not sure why I go around and around that mountain, but I have many times.
First way to making your life less complicated is to admit what makes it complicated. I know you have tried to slow things down, and live life “right”. Even if we feel good about how we handle the list above, many of us complicate our lives by trying to do too many “good things”.
What kind of life did Jesus call us to? Didn’t He say that His yoke is easy?
We Don’t Know Our Purpose
The challenge we face is that most of us don’t know what our our purpose in life is, so we chase after things that don’t fulfill but instead leave us stressed and longing for something more.
[quote cite=”‘The One Thing’ by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan”]Make sure every day you do what matters most. When you know what matters most, everything makes sense. When you don’t know what matters most, anything makes sense.[/quote]Keller and Papasan make a great point. Find out what your most important thing in life is and make sure that gets done. Everything else will fall into its proper place.
How To Make Your Life Less Complicated
Instead of listening to what the culture around you tells you what is important, learn to sit quietly at the seat of Jesus. Learn to hear His voice above the noise. It’s not easy. It takes discipline. I am not good at this yet. Yet I long for it. I long for it, because I know deep in my soul that His way is simpler. I know He makes life less complicated.
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