Flexibility is the ability to easily bend without breaking. We often think of it in terms of our physical muscles. When they are agile and flexible, we have greater physical endurance and better health. But when physical muscles are weak, flaccid or flabby, we’re physically unable to be as mobile as we’d like. Our ability to complete certain tasks or chores diminishes, and slowly our momentum and physical stamina declines. It’s general knowledge that the way to improve muscle density and flexibility is through exercise. It’s also general knowledge that beginning an exercise regimen can be challenging at first. It’s not until our muscles are strengthened to some degree that the exercise regimen becomes easier to manage and even enjoyable. This analogy incorporates both the challenges and rewards of being flexible, and it can be beautifully applied to walking in faith according to God’s Will.

Romans 8:29(NLT) states, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Way before we landed in our mother’s wombs, God knew us. We didn’t choose Him first, He chose us, and He chose us for a purpose within His divine Will and plan. Everything that God does has a purpose, and it is anchored in His goodness, power, and love. We know this because Romans 8:29 assures us that our purpose is sealed in the person of Jesus Christ. He is all that is holy, perfect, and true, and He is the embodiment of all that God created us to be.

God didn’t want robots. He is a God of love, and He wanted a family. He wanted children made in His own image that would choose to love, honor, and obey Him. But regardless of whether or not we love God, He still loves us, and loving us is His great delight. God’s arms of love are always outstretched and waiting for us. He welcomes everyone, and He desires intimacy with everyone that accepts His love through Jesus Christ. This intimacy leads us closer to Him. It causes us to remain continually in His shadow where His rest abides.

No human being comes out of their mother’s womb automatically obeying every piece of truth and wisdom in God’s Word. Nor is the knowledge of God’s Word already in our minds and hearts when we’re born. Our lives are meant to be a journey with God, one where we seek to know more about Christ so we can become more and more like him. We must never forget that this is a choice, and God will not force us to make the right one. He will not force us to love Him or to learn more about Him through Christ. We have to want this, and the way that we demonstrate our desire is through the actions we take to know God’s Word.

Several lifetimes still wouldn’t be nearly enough to exhaust every piece of knowledge that is contained in God’s Word. John 21:25(NLT) states, “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” This gives us some idea of the vast and unlimited knowledge about Christ and all the things he accomplished during his sojourn on earth. We can’t know it all, but we can and should know enough to fulfill our purpose within God’s plan.

God is the One with the Plan

I can’t do what you do quite the way you do it, and vice versa, you can’t do what I do the way I do it. No two individuals are alike, and this speaks to the brilliance of God’s design. Ephesians 2:10(NLT) declares, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” God has a plan for each of us, and He desires that we walk in His plan and purpose because it’s the path that contains the bounty of His blessings.

Many of us complain because we don’t see enough of this bounty manifesting in our lives, but the simple truth is that we do not involve God in our lives to the extent that He desires. We leave Him on the sidelines until it’s clear that our agendas aren’t working out and something wrong happens. Then, because we’ve lingered behind with exercising our faith muscle, we find ourselves without the agility and flexibility to move at the pace and discipline required. God doesn’t punish us because of this, He will teach us if we allow. It will require the diligence to seek Him first and it will also require that we both repent and correct the error of not putting Him first in all that we do.

God planned the good things that He wants us to do long ago, long before our parents and grandparents arrived on the scene. He tells us in Proverbs 19:21 that although we make many plans for ourselves in life, it’s His purpose that will prevail. Our failure to believe, trust, and adhere to this truth will cause life to work against us rather than with us. This is where many of us are today. Our lives are holding up a mirror that reveals we’re heading in the wrong direction, and we must seek God with all that we are to change course.

Walk by the Spirit

Proverbs 14:12(NLT) tells us, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” God doesn’t want us on a path that SEEMS right; He wants us on the path that IS right. Sometimes we’re on the wrong path and don’t realize it. If we’re flexible to God’s Word and Will, we can change lanes relatively quickly. This is why it is so important to be flexible, because it means we can kick stubbornness and selfishness to the curb when we need to, and move on with the Spirit of love, power, and self-control.

Flexibility is required to walk by the Spirit. Jesus Christ always did the Father’s Will and never deviated from it even a little bit. Because his Spirit is in us, we can learn to live this same way. John 16:13(NLT) says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” The Spirit guides us into the infinite possibilities God has for us, but we must be diligent to follow the Spirit’s lead. Sometimes, he will tell us to head left when we’re heading right. Other times, he might tell us to do something completely different than what we thought we should be doing. And then, there’s times when He makes it clear that the grace extended for our sinful behavior has run out. In order to get on the path that IS right, we must totally abandon that sinful behavior and surrender to the work the Spirit is doing in us.

Genesis 2:2 tells us that on the seventh day, after God had finished the work of creation, He rested from all His work. In Hebrews 4:11, God invites us in to strive to enter into His rest, the place where His peace abounds. For us, this means that we should be still, and simply acknowledge that He is our God; He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega, the One True Living God who has all power in His hands. There isn’t anything that God can’t do, and this truth must permeate our entire being. We were called by God to walk in His Spirit, to seek Him first in all that we attempt to do.

We must cease from all our efforts to make our lives something that God didn’t destine them to be. In like manner, our labor to push our own purpose rather than seeking God’s purpose must also take a back seat. We must shift from being self-motivated to being God-motivated. The world has taught us to expect a step-by-step guide for everything we undertake, so that we can walk by sight and not by faith, but that’s not God’s way. Psalm 37:23 declares that the steps of a righteous person are ordered by the Lord, and our Heavenly Father delights in this person’s life because they’ve chosen the right path.

To walk in the Spirit is to walk by faith in God, enjoying our relationship with Him as the journey unfolds according to His perfect timing. Many of us are locked into a position of inflexibility and because of this we’re not moving. We must recognize that an inflexibility to God’s Will and Word will cause spiritual deprivation. It will wreak havoc on our lives and cause our hearts to become hardened. We can change this, and we should. Our first step is to begin a regimen of continually seeking God and building our faith muscle by reading and studying God’s Word. Then, when it’s time for rest, we ought to meditate in the Spirit by thinking about the promises God has made us in His Word. It’s not a time to revert back to the ‘same old’. It’s a time to do all that we can to grow in Christ, to surrender to God and develop the flexibility to move as He leads us higher and further than we ever thought possible.  ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“The Flexibility to Move Where God Leads”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.