God's Will For Your Life!
What a busy month it has been for our family. We are finally settled in and getting into the new rountine of things. I want to start off by letting my readers know that I will try and publish new posts for discussion on Fridays. I also want to let churches in and around the Hill Country(San Antonio area) that I would love an invitation to teach or preach on Sundays. I have a driving and burning passion to inspire and equip believers in their spiritual walk.
I have been thinking lately about the will of God. It is my personal belief that God has a will for every soul. We hear over and over again in scripture that His will for our lives is perfect (Rom 12: 1-2) In Jeremiah 29:11 scripture say, "I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I have asked myself many times, how can I know truly what God's will is for my life?
Please consider these points as encouraging steps in surrrending to God:
I have come to believe that the first step in understanding the will of God for your life is for a person to completely surrender his life to God and trust in him. Then, secondly, I would then like to stress that the spiritual disciplines (prayer, fasting, study of His word, meditation) should follow. We must then seek the will of God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind. Jesus reminds us that in Matthew 7:7 that one of the best ways to seek his will is in prayer: to ask, seek and knock. Persistance is a must in our lives. I would like to challenge every believer to allow God to reveal His will for your life. It is only in doing the will of God that we find true happiness and peace within.
So, why is it so hard sometimes for Christians to understand what the will of God is for them? Does God have the same will for all men? Does each believer have their own will in God? Have have you seen the will of God play out in your life? If so, how? Do we give credit to God when He is working out His will in our lives? What things blind us from clearly seeing the will of God? How can we live within his will?
What do you think?
Share your thoughts.
posted by preacherman @ 11:33:00 AM
18 Comments:
after reading jesus community today,
http://communityofjesus.blogspot.com/ ,i went to my blog and wrote this post:
NOW
this is the day
that the Lord has made
may He guide us
in His will
may we look to Him
and follow
and then i read your post.
Good advice, Kinney. I believe that God has a perfect will for each Christ-follower. I also believe that most don't know or do that will because they are not following him.
Many claim that they are not absolutely sure of his will for them. I've discovered that those are often not doing the basics--meeting with God continually, fellowshiping with his people regularly, or testifying to/for him daily. When we don't get the basics down, how can we expect to be trusted with the complex?
Note the conclusion of Jesus' parable concerning 'talents':
Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (Matt. 25:28-29)
Blessings,
Benj.
God's will for each of us is to be like Jesus.. has very little to do with what we do.. but has everything to do with who we become!
Does God have the same will for all men? Does each believer have their own will in God?
The same to some degree. God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4). "God's kindness is meant to lead [us] to repentance." (Rom 2:2) "The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Pet 3:9)
But not utterly the same. "[The] Spirit ... apportions to each one individually as he wills." (1 Cor 12:11) "God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. ..." (1 Cor 12:28ff) "His gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers..." (Eph 4:11ff)
My point is not to quote Scripture left and right, but to point out that, generally speaking, God's will for each of us salvation through Jesus Christ, and specifically, it is manifested in different ways. We are all called to do good works which God has set before us, for "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:10)
Do we give credit to God when He is working out His will in our lives?
I recently got a promotion at work. The next week, many things went wrong (server-related problems). I was not very amiable on Tuesday (a 12+ hour work-day) nor Wednesday. Thursday evening, late on Christmas day, I was doing some remote work on my laptop (after 11pm) as my wife slept next to me. I made a mistake, and had to drive 55 miles late at night to reboot a server, and then drive 55 miles back; I got to bed at 2:30 am on Friday morning.
But on Friday, on the drive down and the drive back, something had changed. I prayed my first Rosary in quite some time on the drive down, meditating on the sorrowful mysteries of Christ's Passion, and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy on the drive back in thanksgiving for a successful resolution to the problem.
I have come to accept both the promotion and the challenges as gifts from God, and reminders of my need to depend upon Him and not on myself!
When we don't know God's will for us we have NOT done exactly what you suggested we should do.
Blessings,
Royce
Kinney, these are great questions that we wrestle with constantly at Cascade Hills. I am constantly on the rampage to shine the spotlight back on these kinds of questions, never letting people off the hook for allowing God to recede into the deep background of their lives.
A minister friend of mine once said that we need to stop asking what God's will is for my life, and start asking how my life can align with God's will, looking for where and how He is working and joining Him there.
Those words have shaped a lot of my thinking on the subject.
May God open our ears and eyes to His will.
Thank you so much for this post. I needed to be reminded of this today. Blessings!
Kinney...glad you're posting blogs again and definitely glad that you guys are getting settled in.
I really think what Jason wrote above is entirely true, and although it appears like a bit of semantics, the emphasis he's pointing to is good. Very good.
I might throw into the mix a caution that many 21st century American Christians tend to ignore; namely, the fact that we exist in a highly individualistic culture, and I think all too often we approach God's will assuming that it boils down to each singular person. What if God's will has less to do with discerning a specific vocation/calling for each individual, and more to do with his desire to call people to Christian community and redeem all of creation?
First off... Welcome Back! I always hate moving and i find that in times of moving i come to this question of God's will for me with great... um.. emotion!
I dont have a clear answer, but this post has certainly given me something to chew on.
May the Lord bless you in this chapter of your life!
Sometimes I just wish he spoke to me in a clear tone like years ago, but like you I struggle with this.
http://theblogofnancy.blogspot.com/2008/12/dear-blog-friends.html
May your life be filled with happiness as you daily experience the blessings of God in the New Year!
bill @ a spiritual oasis
I think part of the reason is becuase we are afriad of what it might mean for our lives if we give them over completely to the will of God. Here are some lyrics from a friend of mine that I recently posted on my blog that I think speak to this idea.
"Recklessly abandoning all thoughts of my control, trust is never thought to cost more than the rescue of my soul, You, You are mad with love and only you make sense, and with love you are intoxicating to the brim.
I have no problem laying down my problems at your feet, but I am just not sure about giving up my dreams to someone like you, Oh Madman Divine, My darkest nightmare, you’re the only Light in sight.
And You are the empitome of unpredictability, and to be honest with You, You scare the hell outta me.
I have no problems laying down my problems at your feet, but I am just not sure about giving up my dreams to someone like you, Oh Madman Divine. And my darkest nightmare is You’re the only Light in sight."
-Lyrics from a song by one of my best friends, Zach Lycans
I am so greatful and thankful for all the many thoughts and ideas on this subject. I know personally I want to do the will of God in every aspect of my life. I also want to motivate other believers to do the same. Thank yo so much everyone for your words of wisdom on this topic. I hope and pray that every believer will allow God's will to play out in their lives. God is sooooo good.
Do a word search for "Will of God" and "God's will" and any other aspect of that in the Bible "will of the Father", etc. The text is very clear about His will for us; sometimes being so clear as to say "This is the will of God..."
In addition, to be "transformed in the renewing of your mind, then you be able to prove what God's will is..." (Rom 12:2)
So then, what is mind renewal? It is the mind of Christ in us!
What is the mind of Christ? Phil 2:1-11.
just some thoughts for the topic...
Further thought: I don't think we can "do God's Will" - like its something that is transferred to us via messages then we do it - I think what we do is become so transformed in Christ that our actions, by this new self we have become in Christ, will naturally be the will of God for us!
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