People tell me all the time that it is difficult to know what God's will for their lives is. But the fact of the matter is that there are only three things in the New Testament that specifically tell us what God's will is.
The first is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, where Paul tells us that "It is God's will that you should be sanctified...". He then goes on to explain what he means by that in the next 5 verses. He says that sanctification (while it is deeper than just this issue) begins with committing to sexual purity. God's will for you, Christian is that you should be sexually pure, avoiding the lusts of the body. When you come to think of it, if we can get a hold of our own passions, then we will find that much of the rest of life will take care of itself.
The second is found in 1 Peter 2 and verse 15, where Peter tells us "it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people." Basically what God is saying through Peter here is that He wants us to not only not do stuff, but to also do things that are good by His standards and not some arbitrary feeling or emotion that is coming from us. You see God's purpose for us is that we do things for Him. We aren't to just sit around waiting for His return, but we are to get to work. If you are a Christian, and you're breathing, then there's work for you to do my friend!
The last thing we'll mention today is found again in 1 Peter, but this time in chapter 3 and verse 17, where it says that it is God's will for you to suffer for doing good, if you suffer at all. But add 2 Timothy 3:12 (In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted), and suffering seems to be pretty certain for all of us. So let's make sure that when suffer, it's because we've done the right thing.
So God's will, as it is spelled out for us here in these three passages, tells us that we need to avoid sexual sin, get busy doing the work that God has for us to do, and then get ready to suffer for doing it. Now I know this isn't going to make me "Mr. Popular" today for saying these things, but it is a place for us to start doing God's will.
Now there is a lot more to God's will than just these three verses. In fact, if you read the entirety of the Scriptures then you'll have a better grasp on what God's will is for your life. But the truth of the matter is that God hasn't hidden His will from us. He wants us to know...that's why He gave us His Word. So read it, live it out and rejoice every day that you get to be counted among those who love Him and are called according to His purposes!
Feel free to make a comment (I'd really love to see some of those!) and we'll see you on Sunday!
No comments:
Post a Comment