Is It (__________) God's Will?

Recently a friend asked me how to know God's will on a specific issue. I thought in response, "Wow, that's the million dollar question for Christians." I can't count how many times I find myself wondering the very same thing. Sometimes the answer is pretty cut and dry. Other times it's very difficult to know whether God cares at all about a decision. "Which shirt should I wear today? Should I get my oil changed this week or wait until pay day? Should I buy such and such thing? Is God calling me to do this?"

Part of what makes it so difficult for us may be that we are so used to hearing do's and don'ts that are associated with our faith. However, this is not the whole point of knowing God. Part of being a servant of Christ is obeying Him and doing what He wants us to do. However, God's whole plan for us is not restricted only to the things He wants us to do (and not do). It also includes exercising the abilities He created us with - including free will. In exercising our ability to make choices, sometimes God remains silent, effectively passing the decision back into our own lap, even if we have offered it up to Him in prayer or in our hearts. By doing this, I believe God want's us to learn some things, for examply how to exercise our faith and other virtues like love or patience.

Never the less, in answer to my friend's question, I belive there are some principles God gives us to help guide us even when He is being silent.

1. God gives us freedom and a free will. Alot of times we over analyze whether God wants us to do something or not in life. There are specific do's and don'ts in the Bible (like DO love God and love others, and DON'T live only for yourself or for money, to name a couple). However alot of the activites and actions we engage in on a daily basis may be hard to measure by those clearcut standards. It's what some people call "gray areas." Areas that may be God's will or may not. But one thing to remember is that in Christ we have FREEDOM to make decisions and choices under God's guidance. (Check out 1 Cor. 10:29; Galations 5:1; 5:13; I Peter 2:16)

2. The Good vs. the Best principal. This is a principal which loosely interpreted means there are sometimes in life when you must choose between two or a number of positive choices. In those instances, you can ask God to help you look for the BEST choice or option. For example, in Luke 10:38-42, we read that when Jesus visited the home of Mary and Martha, He found two women that loved Him deeply but showed it in different ways. In the end, Mary choose the BEST option by choosing to sit at Jesus feet and listen to His words, whereas Mary chose a good option, but not the best one. Similarly, but not always quite so spiritual, we may find instances in life where there are two good choices and our responsibility is to seek the BEST.

3. Having faith in God's ability to oversee all of life's activities and situations. Proverb's 3:5,6 promise that if we trust in God and acknowledge His power to guide us, He will lead us in every avenue. Similarly we find Jesus' words in Matthew 6:33,34 that admonish us to seek God and His kingdom as though nothing else matters, and when we do God will take care of our every needs. To me, the real principle at work here is that God honors when we have faith in Him and He honors when we seek His will by simply asking Him. If we are willing to acknowledge His place in our lives, by asking Him what He may want of us, then even in those instances that do not require any clearcut course of action, I believe God will lead us in a way that we'll find His blessing. The important thing is to believe He is able to lead and make His plan clearly known.

4. To piggy back off the last point - sometimes taking some advice from simply "roadsigns" can be a good way to find God's plan, but we must have faith that God is behind it all. What I mean by this is that sometimes life answers our questions for us, by canceling out one of our options or clearly indicating one that is best. In those times, we can move forward in faith, trusting that God is at the helm of all that's going on. It's like a corny saying goes that says, "When God closes one door, He opens up a window." Well the point is that sometimes God will simply eliminate an option, and we can trust that He is leading then by His providence. If a door is closed, walk through a different one.

I think the key point here behind all of these points is that we must remember that God desires for us to become responsible individuals, managing our time, our actions, our resources, our throughts and words all in such a way that we ultimately honor Him. That requires us to seek His direction. Often then when we do, we find He grants us the freedom again to make a choice, in hopes that ultimately we will learn from our decisions.

An Easy Journey?

Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My burden is easy and My yoke is light."

I Corinthians 10:13
"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

Insight into the Christian life is knowing that God has our best interests at heart, and believing that. Jesus told his followers that they would have to die to themselves and follow Him to truly find life. That sounds like a pretty tough task to most of us. But He also indicated that when we do we would have every resource of our Heavenly Father on our side. In fact, Jesus told his disciples that yes, while they would have a burden to carry, it was easy and light. He even told them that if they carried His burden they would find rest for their souls! Paul seems to echo that truth when writing to the Corinthians buy pointing out that there is no trial or temptation that we may experience which is exclusive only to me. God does not wish to see us fail. He promises to give us a way out of temptation is we simply choose to take it. The toughest part about carrying our own burden is that we are all by ourselves with it. When we exchange our burdens for His burdens, we eventually find that He will help us carry His burden - we're no longer on our own.

Good Friday Indeed

Romans 5:6-8
"For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Isaiah 53:10
"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief."

Two thousand and some odd years ago, on what tradition says was a Friday, Jesus Christ endured the worst suffering that many of us could imagine. He was betrayed and abdoned by his closest family and friends. He was accused and convicted falsely before a corrupt justice system. He was beaten with whips that had glass shards in them, beard yanked out, punched, spit on, and forced to carry a huge wooded cross up hill, all while wearing a crown made out of thorns, and being mocked and cursed at by an angry crowd who was thrilled to see him die. A crowd who just days before had honored him as their own king. Then soldiers drove nails into his hands and feet - nailing him to the cross that he was unable even to carry the whole way to the top of this place they called Golgatha - or "the place of the skull." Finally he was hoisted up into the air nailed to the cross to suffer a death by what was actually asphyxiation - lack of oxygen. Being nailed to a cross at hands an feet one would have to put the pressure of their whole body on a single nail driven through their feet to give their lungs enough of a foundation to even breathe - something that would be excruciatingly painful, and after so many hours of doing even impossible.

Yet all of this was not even the real kicker. There were actually two other men there that day on their own crosses, next to Jesus. Their situations were not exactly the same, however. Yes, it was a common practice for men to die on a cross in that fashion during the days of Rome's rule. But the real kicker of this story is this: Jesus was innocent. He was perfect, sinless and blameless. And to top if off, when He suffered this death, He accepted the very penalty of sin iteself - something that literally billions of people who have lived since the dawn of mankind should have suffered. But Jesus paid it all. God laid the sins of every man on Jesus, His own Son, so that every man could become a member of God's own family.

Good Friday? For Jesus it must have been tough - in fact nearly impossible to call "good." For us - "good" can barely begin to describe it.

Jesus paid it all

All to Him I owe

Sin hath left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow

(chorus from Jesus Paid It All - by Elvina Hall, 1865)