The Will of God

The Will of God

Part 1

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

Welcome to the devotionals page of Danen Kane’s website. Since this is the first devotion...ever…on this website, it’ll be a quick and “easy” one. Although one would never conclude that a discussion about the will of God would be “easy”. But here we go.

I’m sure that sometime in your life, you’ve asked God the following questions:

“God, what’s your will for my life?”

“God, where do you want me to go from here?”

“God, what career should I choose?”

“God, who am I going to marry?”

I’m pretty certain no one really asks the last question in this list. Ha ha ha! But I digress. A major dilemma of the human nature is that we desire some kind of control over our lives, or at least a general game plan as to what will occur. The idea of not knowing and yet still having to go forward can scare even the bravest men. So we pose the question to God, “What is your will for my life?” in an effort to ease our worried mind and find some kind of direction and purpose to pursue.

Now, in the theological circle, there exists the topic of God’s Permissive Will and His Divine Will, which differentiates what God would desire for us as compared to what he allows us to do. We are not going to touch this topic at all, so please set that mind frame aside for a moment. ( Sorry theologians…no I am not a pagan...ha ha ha). Instead of trying to answer the question, I’m going to bring a different perspective to light.

Often, the key to seeing the truth is not always dependant upon finding the answer, but relies heavily upon understanding the question. It’s the question that drives us. Do you know what the question is? J

We ask the question, “God, what is Your will for my life?” At first glance, it seems like an innocent enough question to ask. It is a plead of help and direction from us to a Divine and All Powerful God. But if we break down the question, there much about our sinful nature that surfaces. Let’s explore the semantics of this.

Sentences can be broken down into many components, two of them being the subject and the object. The subject is the active party, you could say. It is the subject that is moving or is doing something to the object. For example, the sentence “I am going to the store.” “I” am the subject, and “the store” is the object. “I” am the active party, and “the store” is the goal or the center piece of the action, if you will. Now let’s apply this thought to our question.

“God, what is Your will for my life?” The subject is “Your will” and the object is “my life.” So we see that “God’s will” is the moving party, and “my life” is the center piece. Let me rephrase this. We see that “my life” is the center piece, and it is “God’s will” that moves around it. And just in case this sentence is still unclear, let me phrase it again. We see that “my life” is the center of the universe and is the most important thing, and I ask that “God’s will” lead and guide “my life” so that “my life” turns out the way I want it to. So at the heart of our sinful nature, “my life” is still the centerpiece of our requests.

Just in the event that the explanation is still unclear, let me re-phrase the question as to perhaps how we should be asking, “God, how does my life fit into Your will?” With this perspective, we see that it is God’s will that is the centerpiece and our life revolves around God’s will. So it is God’s will that is the center of the universe, and our life that moves around Him.

I like to explain things in metaphors and similes, so let’s say that God’s will is a river cutting through a canyon. If we ask, “God what is Your will for my life?”, we in essence ask God to cut us a path through the canyon. If we ask, “God, how does my life fit into Your will?” we in essence say, “God, I see your river, and I’m going to jump in.” Again let’s say that God’s will is a 1000 piece puzzle. When we ask, “God, what is Your will for my life?’ we see our life as the completed puzzle and God’s will a small piece of that. When we ask, “God, how does my life fit into Your will?”, we see God’s will as the completed puzzle and our lives a small piece.

Basically, the goal of that discussion to emphasize that it is God’s will that takes priority, and we should seek to see God’s plan for the world, and see how our lives fit into that plan. This involves a yielding of desires to God and an acceptance that God has greater plans out there than just our lives. And it also sets us up for Part II. Stay tuned…

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone whishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?...”

Matthew 16:24-26

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid old of it yet; but one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:7-14