SEEKING GOD'S WILL

SEEKING GOD’S WILL

Friday, June 09, 2017

Ephesians 2:1-10 And He has made you alive, who were once dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience; among whom we also had our way of life in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

  Something that had to be clarified for me decades ago; “Choose the correct paramount statement: I want God’s will in my life.” or “I want to live according to God’s will.”

  I am not alone in that I had to change my mind on this topic. In the past I prayed for an understanding of and direction for God’s specific will in my life. Wise mentors pointed out that what I was doing was my wanting to leapfrog. They maturely showed me this by asking “Do you believe as to His will He gave us general marching orders?” Of course I did! “How are you doing on understanding and complying with them?” Oh oh!

  Yep, enlightened I realized I had fallen prey to my ego as I looked for significance by my standard, not His.

  Wanting me to be factually aware they told me that finding God’s specific will for me beyond God’s general orders for one-and-all could be spelled “Miserable unmemorable martyrdom.”

  Then Ann again gently presented me with her Bloom Where You’re Planted advice. “If God has a specific will for us beyond His Word He’ll let us know.”

  Thinking about the above as I awakened this morning was followed by further thoughts as I sat down to this keyboard. One in particular is when God calls to the specific it often is an interruption. Consider Moses in the sheep meadow (Ex.3:1-12), Gideon at subterfuge on the threshing floor (Jdg.6:11-16), Saul on the road to Damascus (Act.9:1-6), Peter on the rooftop Act.10:11-14; 11:1-10), other Bible characters plus others we personally know of requiring serious denial of self. (At the moment I’m thinking very much of Samantha Knaub in Zambia, a young woman that had otherwise life plans.) Then there are the countless others as yet unnamed.

  It is a good thing to pray “Here am I, send me.” (Isa.6:8), but first let us look to our standing on God’s will as clearly presented in His Word. Something this man is still working on, “For it is God who works in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure. I am to do all things without murmurings and disputings, so that I may be blameless and harmless, a son of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse world. Among these I am to shine as light in the world, holding forth the Word of Life, so that God, my mentors and others may rejoice with me in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain nor labored in vain.“ (Phil.2:13-16 personalized.)

EBB4

PS. Please be aware that my quotes are from memory not tape, though accurate in sense, are not verbatim.