There are times I wonder if God's will and mine are in sync. I know I can't be alone in this. There are times when I embark on a plan that I have prayed over and sought counsel over then moved ahead in the direction that seems right only to learn I may have been wrong after all. I am in one of those times now.
Knowing the will of God is not an exact science. There are no tea leaves, no smoke signals, and outside of the Bible no mysterious writings that will unearth the secret knowledge of God. The good news is that God wants to reveal His revealed will to us in the Scriptures. The best news is that He has revealed more to us than we think!
First, it is the will of God that I am regenerated (2 Tim. 2:4). I am confident in my position in Christ, by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8). Because I am regenerated I am indwelt by the Spirit of God. The amount of time I spend meditating and reading and studying the Word will determine the filling of the Spirit in my heart (Col 3:16). I confess I am not always saturated in it; spending time only between it's covers... I meditate upon it's truths and listen to it daily, but I can always spend more time than I do.
It is also God's will that I am set apart (sanctified) for Him and for service to Him (1 Thess 4:3). This means I keep my thought life free from immorality. I honor God by how I treat my body and what I do with my body. I abstain from sexual immorality. I don't read romance novels, and I avoid movies that make a mockery of what God intends sex to be. I dress modestly so as not to cause another to stumble, and try to honor God with my eyes and ears.
I am doing God's will when I am treating others justly, when I don't use them or abuse them to meet some selfish or self-centered desire I have (1 Thess 4:6). Being in a ministry where I am dependent upon the will and generosity of other people to donate their time and sometimes their financial resources gives me a great reason to ponder this verse. I endeavor to always be careful in how I treat those who so graciously give of themselves to the ministry. Ultimately, I represent Christ (just like every other Christian) to those around me. Abusing or demeaning people is not only unkind but it is also ungodly. The Lord's will is that I treat others with respect and honor as His children, children of the King.
I am doing God's will when I suffer. Wait a minute. What? It is God's will that I suffer?
Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. 1 Peter 4:19 (NASB)
Suffering for the sake of Christ comes with the territory of being a Christian who desires to honor God and life a sanctified life. It is not easy to do in this corrupt world, but it can be done when the person truly wants to do it. It means inconveniences, and not fitting in and speaking boldly when God's truth is not popular or even welcomed.
Sometimes it means doing without new things or even without certain things at all. Suffering may also mean surrendering a dream or the hope of something you desire because it does not fit into what God has planned for your life. Sometimes, we don't really know until we take the steps to bring the dream to life only to be turned around and headed away from it by other things the Lord allows into our lives to redirect us.
What a Christian can be sure of is that God is completely in charge of our lives. In His perfect sovereign plan we will arrive where He intends for us to be, we will arrive in exactly the condition we were destined to arrive in and at the moment in time He determined in eternity past. I find great comfort in the truths I listed in today's posting; especially when I began writing wondering about God's will for my life.