You Can't Bargain With God

There was a visiting speaker at church today by the name of Jim Knakal. He is raising funds to become a missionary in Germany, but that was not my main interest like some might assume. The message that he presented to the congregation was something that I really needed to hear and it helped me realize that I needed to change my ways.
The focus of his sermon was on Romans 12:1, which states, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Mr. Knakal spoke about what a sacrifice means in biblical terms, which boils down to being an atonement for sins to God or an offering of thankfulness. The emphasis was on the fact that any sacrifice should be done willingly and wholeheartedly, with no strings attached. He presented us with a hypothetical situation involving a man living in Old Testament times bringing a lamb for sacrifice to the rabbi, but determining for the rabbi how the sacrifice should be utilized. Mr. Knakal stated that, in essence, this was what we sometimes do when we approach God with our issues. We want God's guidance, but we lay out the guidelines. This is no way to be a living sacrifice to the Holy God. This is self-absorbed control over all life matters, and then we wonder why we fail or "plans" don't work out.
Mr. Knakal instead said that we should be more like the Prodigal Son. Once he had blown all of his funds on foolish worldly desires, the Prodigal Son realized what he had done and rather going to his father for more money, he went seeking to be his father's servant because he felt unworthy to be deemed his son. This is a demonstration of being living sacrifice, and something we should all strive to model in our interactions with God the Father. We need to understand and realize that He is the provider of bread and water and that we must submit and serve Him to fulfill our purpose.
What I really needed to hear, though, was when Jim Knakal said, "You just don't bargain with God if you're going to offer yourself as a sacrifice." He was speaking in terms of how those who feel called by God to become missionaries might respond. Some might be like, "God I really want to serve you, but I don't want to go to this or that region of the world, and I really don't want to have to deal with rats or snakes or spiders."
That's when it hit me. We need to remember that God chooses how to use us and that we can't choose our own purpose from God. In a sense, this is how I approached my job application process. I've been praying for a full time position within exercise physiology, but I've been narrowing the criteria for God by picking and choosing locations to apply. I've stayed along the east coast because I don't feel like moving across the country, completely uprooting my life and starting over. At least that's what I did up until today. Today I began broadening my search and applying to any full time position within my field no matter what the location was. I applied in Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Idaho, some of which are states that I didn't really want to apply to, but felt that I had to stop bargaining with God.
A few weeks back, I was visiting Saucon Community Church and a woman there said something to me that really struck me. She said that she felt that God must have a very specific job in mind for me since I'm struggling so much to locate a job in a field that supposedly has plenty of jobs available. That comment combined with today's message makes me feel like I've been limiting where God can potentially place me for His purpose. It's practically urging me to throw myself into the unknown, trusting that God will utilize me as He sees fit. So here's to no longer bargaining with the Almighty God.