I had a great conversation with a friend yesterday about God's will for our lives versus God using you where you are or where you choose to be.
Some people believe that you should just go out and make good choices and that God will bless you for those good choices. While others believe that we should first pray, fast, and allow God to show us where He wants us to go do good things at.
Well which is the right way? As I looked into what the bible says that God's will is I realized there was a lot more than I had originally thought. Which has sparked another series idea for me. So we will now look into the different facets of God's will as it is found in the bible.
First, I'm reminded of the verse in Romans 8:28 that says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
God will use you where you are and where you choose to be in life. It's amazing how God can use a "mistake" in our lives and turn it into something beautiful. He's really good at that.
Does that work in all situations though? Is it saying that you can continue to go about your life previous to being a Christian and that God will still use you? Well, yes. God will use your choices for good. Are you living up to the potential that God wants for you? Obviously not. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!". And then in 1 John 2:15-17 it says "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
You can use this debate for every situation in life. Your career choice, your family size, where you live, what church you attend, what type school you want for your kids, ministry, material purchases. The list goes on. So how do we know if what we want for our own lives is what God would choose for our lives if He had free reign to makes those choices for us? You tell me.
I will continue to look at what the bible says about God's will for our lives in a series that I will start now. Not sure how long this series will be because I've just begun to research this. I hope you will join me and comment about your thoughts or verses that have spoken to you on this subject.
In my last semester at CBU I took a class called "behavioral implications of theology." One of the main things we looked at was how behavior was effected by our theology. We looked at the 'Will of God' and how people reacted and chose to live their lives believing certain things about the will of God.
ReplyDeleteWe decided there were two sides to the camp. They were basically separated how you separated them. One side has an "8 ball" mentality to seeking the Lord's will to their life. The other has a "understanding the character of the Lord" mentality to seeking the Lord's will for their life. Once we separated the camps, we then looked at which side was more reliable, certain, likely to lead us to stable lives.
On the one side, you pray, fast, look for verses in the word to solidify what you are planning on doing without looking at the context of the verse, pray for signs, etc.
On the other side, someone reads the word consistently, spends time with older, wiser people who have walked with the Lord for a long portion of their life, seeks wisdom in all of their decisions.
We decided that when looking at both sides, the latter of the two was more reliable, stable, and consistent and more aligned with scripture.
These people don't make decisions that aren't outside the character of the Lord. They trust that the Lord's revealed truth is sufficient for their every need. They don't pray for signs from the Lord (because in scripture those are few and far between in all of scripture) but rather pray for wisdom to apply truths they read in the bible. They begin to understand the character the Lord by spending time with him daily.
I could keep writing about this forever (lol) but I'm sure this long comment will suffice. I'd love to chat back and forth more and see what you find in your search in the bible. :)
Thank you Sarah. Thats awesome.
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