"Is it God's will?"

Mm... this is such a refreshing way of looking at God's will. I'm one of those people that over-analyzes things A LOT, and then once I'm done over-analyzing, I analyze some more. The concept of "God's will" can be a confusing thing, but I've been reading a book called Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung, and I would recommend it to any Christian who might want a new or different and realistic and refreshing look at the concept of God's will. Sidenote: a few chapters ago, the author mentioned our grandparents' generation. His point was that, even just 50 or so years ago, people were not stressing over this sense of duty to figure out the one path they should take that is God's will. And if they don't take that path, they could screw up everything. 50 years ago, people lived. They lived and made choices and God's hand was in all of them, despite the fact that there weren't a million books on how to decipher God's will. Isn't that funny to think about? Our grandparents most likely lived in smaller towns (or even on farms) and most likely had fewer choices to stress over, and they most likely lived more peaceful lives because they took opportunities as they came and they didn't take months to conjure up the best way to do things "according to God's will." Heck! If Henry never married the cute little girl that worked at the candy shop, I wouldn't be here! Do you get my point? That's a very long summary of the author's point, but I thought it was great.

Ok, so when you're in a room by yourself and you hear yourself talk out loud in response to a book's eye-opening perspective, you know it's got to be important....

an excerpt from Just Do Something:

"The conventional approach [to God's will - that is, I must hear God's voice of exactly what He wants me to do before taking any step in any direction] undermines personal responsibility, accountability, and initiative. Let me give an example of what I mean by the conventional approach to the will of God undermining personal responsibility. When I got the call to come to be the senior pastor at University Reformed Church, I was happily serving as an associate pastor in northwest Iowa. It was a hard decision to come to a new church and leave a church I loved. Some people in Iowa were angry about my decision. It would have been very easy to say to people (because I've heard lines like it before): 'I love being in Iowa. If it were up to me, I would stay here. It doesn't make a lot of human sense for me to go. But as I've prayed, it's been very clear to me that this is what the Lord wants. I'm not sure I even like it. But I feel very strongly that it's God's will for me to go to East Lansing.' That could have gotten people off my case, but it would have been unfair. It wasn't God's fault I was leaving. My wife and I prayed to God a lot about the decision, and I think it was a decision that pleased him, just like He would have been pleased if we had stayed. But it was my decision. I was responsible for leaving. I chose. I decided. Yes, in the ultimate sense God already had it decided; that's always true. But it would have been wrong for me to use God's will as a way to removed my personal responsibility in the decision.
The same is true of personal accountability. We need to be careful that we aren't using God as the trump card in all our decisions. Just because you pray doesn't mean your decisions are beyond objection. I know some people talk about God's work in their lives using different phrases. But if we say 'God told me to do this' or 'God's leading me here,' this puts our decisions out of reach from criticisms or concerns. We should choose some different terminology. 'I prayed about it, and this seems best' or 'It seems like the Lord is leading' would be a more helpful way of communicating our dependence on God. We don't want 'God told me so' or God laid it on my heart' or 'It's God's will' or worse yet, 'God told me that He wants you to do such and such' to be conversation stoppers that remove accountability in decision making.
... Does that mean that God's Word has nothing to say about how we live our lives and make decisions? Of course not. But when it comes to most of our daily decisions, and even a lot of life's 'big' decisions, God expects and encourages us to make choices, confident that He's already determined how to fit our choices into His sovereign will.
.... Expecting God, through our subjective sense of things, to point the way for every decision we face, no matter how trivial, is not only impractical and unrealistic, it is a recipe for disappointment and false guilt. And that's hardly what intimacy with Jesus should be all about."

For good

In times of pain or hurt or struggle, have you ever thought directly about the Cross? Not the typical response, like Look at what Jesus went through. I can surely go through what I'm going through because of his grace. But what I mean is this: sometimes we stress so much over what is best to do or not to do. Or who is best to associate with or not to associate with. Or how to handle this or that situation. Or why this or that is happening to me.
Think about Jesus standing before Pilate. Jesus wanted to be spared from that situation (especially the Cross that would follow), and even Pilate wanted to spare him from the situation. God knew that when His son was on the cross, He would have to turn His face away because of the inability for God to associate with OUR sin that was upon His son, in such a heartbreaking moment. He knew this would happen. And He allowed it. He allowed hurt and pain. For OUR good.
I think sometimes we look at painful things in our lives and think, Why is this happening to me? Why is this happening to him or her? If this hurts the heart of God, and if it hurts my heart, surely it is not His will. But in all actuality, IT IS. For it will bring good. Whether or not we see it now in our lifetime, it will bring good. God allowed hurt in His and His own son's life because He knew the good it would bring. Even though it did not make sense to mankind and even to Jesus in moments, it needed to happen. For if it didn't happen, we wouldn't be free. Man did what he could - Pilate put up a fight for Jesus. And even though man did what He could to do what he thought was absolutely right and good, God had His way. What if Pilate would have convinced the crowd that Jesus was in fact, what he was in fact, good and worthy to be freed? What if the anger in that crowd was suddenly convinced otherwise? But God allowed that anger. Think about how amazing that is! God allowed their anger, so that they would do nothing to stop the crucifixion of His own beloved son.
Why is this happening to me? It makes absolutely no sense. But it does to God. For a greater purpose than we can imagine. He will have His way if we will let Him, despite the pain it may bring. It makes sense. And it is FOR good.

First John

I think I managed to underline just about 1/2 of the book of 1 John this morning. Right now I'm reading a book called The Hole in Our Gospel (fabulous, by the way) by Richard Sterns, the president of World Vision. A few of the verses that he highlighted in the chapter I read last night came from 1 John. So this morning, I hopped off the several-year-long road I've been taking to read through the Bible "in one year" :). 1 John is an excellent book, and if you have not read the whole thing through, do it. It's basically a call to love, and a call away from darkness and into God's light, of which He is Himself, so in other words, a call to and into God. Much like the rest of the Bible. "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." (2:3-6) Wow. Quite the command. Scary to think that this is the call and the responsibility of Christians everywhere. But at the same time, it's oddly humbling. "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."

"The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God." (3:8-9) "God's seed remains in him," and because of this humbling picture of God planting in us his call to love, we cannot go on sinning. And because we are to walk as Jesus did, if in fact we claim to live in him, we are to also destroy the devil's work. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our heats at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything... And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us." (3:16-23) And if the devil's work is, in fact, the pain of the hurting, the distress of the weak, and the poverty of the hopeless, then are we not called to destroy the devil's work, to live in God, and to act in love, as Jesus did? And to go on doing this without sinning. In any area of our lives.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." (5:14-15)