One question that Christians may face as they live their lives is the question of what God would have them do at particular times in life. Many Christians face that question when it comes to things such as finding out who their spouse will be, or what to study in college, or whether God wants this particular job for me. We want to know what God's will is when it comes to such things, and may even be tempted to believe that God has one perfect piece of the puzzle for each of these that we "should" choose.
One of the things we are trying to do when we ask that type of question is to discern what God's will is. God is the one who has created this world, and everything happens in this world according to His will. (Yes, I know there are those who will disagree with that statement, but anything less means God is not all-knowing, all-powerful, and that all authority has NOT been given to Jesus, which would make Jesus out to be a liar.) So part of what Christians mean when they ask this question is, what is God's will in this situation?
I find this to be an intriguing question, not so much because I think there are black and white answers, but because it shows us that much of what God does in this world is "hidden" from our view. What I mean by that is, the answers are not just plainly obvious in front of us. If they were, then none of us would ever marry the "wrong" person, or take the "wrong" job, or study the "wrong" field. We wouldn't find ourselves asking what the "right" thing is to do in any given situation.
God's will and design covers so much more than I can talk about in one single post, so over the next few days, you'll probably be reading some of my thoughts on this matter. But more than anything, I hope that even this preliminary set of thoughts gets you to thinking about those parts of your life where you try to discern God's will. How do you go about doing that? My hope would be that you are driven back to God's Word, the Bible, to see what He might have to say. No, you aren't going to find the name of your future spouse in there, or what career He would have you take. But what you will find is that He has a lot to say about how He designed you to live, and how He wills you to live your life. Then, with that background, you can start looking at the various options put before you in life to see which opportunities allow you to best live according to that will and design.
One of the things we are trying to do when we ask that type of question is to discern what God's will is. God is the one who has created this world, and everything happens in this world according to His will. (Yes, I know there are those who will disagree with that statement, but anything less means God is not all-knowing, all-powerful, and that all authority has NOT been given to Jesus, which would make Jesus out to be a liar.) So part of what Christians mean when they ask this question is, what is God's will in this situation?
I find this to be an intriguing question, not so much because I think there are black and white answers, but because it shows us that much of what God does in this world is "hidden" from our view. What I mean by that is, the answers are not just plainly obvious in front of us. If they were, then none of us would ever marry the "wrong" person, or take the "wrong" job, or study the "wrong" field. We wouldn't find ourselves asking what the "right" thing is to do in any given situation.
God's will and design covers so much more than I can talk about in one single post, so over the next few days, you'll probably be reading some of my thoughts on this matter. But more than anything, I hope that even this preliminary set of thoughts gets you to thinking about those parts of your life where you try to discern God's will. How do you go about doing that? My hope would be that you are driven back to God's Word, the Bible, to see what He might have to say. No, you aren't going to find the name of your future spouse in there, or what career He would have you take. But what you will find is that He has a lot to say about how He designed you to live, and how He wills you to live your life. Then, with that background, you can start looking at the various options put before you in life to see which opportunities allow you to best live according to that will and design.
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