We look for answers to big questions our whole life. Even when we are young adults start asking us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As we come to the end of high school, we are faced with “what’s next?” Do we go off to college or university, or get a job, or start an apprenticeship? It’s not long before we need to decide if we want to marry and who.

One of the big questions of life for Christians is “What does God want me to do?”

An answer is found in John 5. Jesus healed a man, on a Sabbath, who had been sick for thirty-eight years. This gets him in trouble with the Jewish leaders, who accuse him of breaking Sabbath rules. Jesus replies by saying he is only doing what the Father is showing him to do.

John 5: 19 and 20 says: “So Jesus explained, ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing.” In John 5: 30 he continues, “I can do nothing on my own.”

If Jesus, the Son of God, only did what the Father does or shows him to do, and if he couldn’t do anything by himself, then who are we to think we can do our own thing? If we are followers of Jesus, then we should be doing the same things as Jesus, including getting our directions from the Father.

“What does God want me to do?”

This question, if we follow Jesus’ example, can by answered by watching where God is at work and joining Him in what He is doing.

In the story, Jesus healed a sick man, and it sounds like only one sick man among a crowd of sick people. Why? Is it possible that he could see that God was at work in this one person? Was there something about this man that convinced Jesus he was receptive to God’s healing if only given the opportunity? Somehow, Jesus knew that this man was part of what God wanted done there on that day.

If we want to follow the example of Jesus, we need to learn how to be attentive to what God is doing and what He is asking of us. This begins with prayer. It’s interesting to notice how often Jesus spent time alone in prayer with the Father. We need to pray. And we need to invite the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see what God is doing.

Jesus told us in John 14 that he was going to send us the Holy Spirit “who will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14: 26). We have the privilege of the Holy Spirit in us to guide us, to teach us, and to help us see where God is already working.

We need to ask for eyes to see receptive hearts and open doors of opportunity. We need to invite God to speak to us, and to help us hear his voice so we can respond in obedience.

Jesus assumes the Father will show him what to do. We need to join with Jesus in that same assumption and watch and listen with attentive eyes and ears so we can respond with willing hands and feet.

God does have a plan for this world, and He invites us as believers to join him in His work. If Jesus can do nothing on his own, we surely can’t either.

May you hear and see God at work and know how to follow Him obediently.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe