The Hunt

"Many Christians think of finding God's will as if it were an Easter egg hunt. God isn't in the business of keeping His will from you... The Bible is clear that some things are always God's will... and some things are never God's will... If you want to do God's will do what He says to do and don't do what He says not to do... Aside from that do whatever your hand finds to do with all of your might, that's Ecclesiastes 9:10. If He wants you to do something else He'll let you know through circumstance, through Bible study, through your brothers and sisters in Christ. The Bible says I Thessalonians 4:3 'For this is the will of God, your sanctification.' In other words God's perfectly capable of moving you anywhere He wants, of bringing forth any circumstances, of giving you any relationship, that's His business." ~ Steve Brown

I like this statement, especially the part about thinking of God's will like it is an Easter egg to be found. So often we fret over what "God's will for my life" is. We stress about whether or not we are making the "right decision" or if we are going to "mess up God's plan". We complicate things too much. First, we cannot mess up God's plan. God is sovereign and His plans are certain, there is nothing we can do to change that. Second, we worry so much about making the "right decisions" when really God's will for us as Christians is not as much about what we do specifically, but who we are as His children. As Steve quoted above, I Thessalonians 4:3 specifically states that the will of God is that we be sanctified in Him. Psalms 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart." How can God promise to give us the desires of our hearts? Well if we are delighting ourselves in Him, following Him, and making Him the center of our lives He will make His desires our desires as He sanctifies us. We are then free to follow those desires that He has given us.

How do we make this practical? A few things: First, to delight ourselves in God we have to know Him and what His general will for creation is. To do this we must study His Word, listen to it rightly preached, and commune with Him in prayer. Through this He becomes our joy and we begin to see what His plans (in general) for the Kingdom are. Second, God has given us community for many reasons and one is so we can draw from the wisdom of the collective body. We need to seek the advice of the friends that know us best and the older, wiser godly individuals in our lives. Finally, if we are doing all of the above we can follow our hearts' desires trusting that God will make His desires our desires.

By His Grace,
Taylor