Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

The Will Of God

1 THESSALONIANS 4:3-7, 5:18 – For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE WILL OF GOD. It is an area in our Christian life we often struggle with – doing the will of God. We pray, even fast, for God to reveal the what, where, and when of His yet to be revealed will in our lives. I have been there. I am sure you have as well, but don’t we find it interesting that we don’t find those type of prayers in our Bibles? Think about it. What did the Lord Jesus pray? “Father, not my will be done, but yours” and then He simply followed the unfolding circumstances of His life knowing this was His Father’s plan unfolding. And what about the Apostle Paul? Do we find him praying for the “what, where, and when” of God’s will in his life? Nope. He, like our Lord, committed Himself to God and let Him orchestrate the affairs of his life, and he responded accordingly. This is an important lesson for us. Perhaps what we should do is concentrate more on doing God’s revealed will for us in His Word instead of trying to figure out the mysterious aspects of His will for us that will unfold through His providence and circumstances. And if we would sit back and evaluate our lives, is it not true that God didn’t “zap us” with revelation of His mysterious will for us, but instead orchestrated events, circumstances, and situations which clearly guided us into His will? So, we shouldn’t get so worked up and focused on God’s will not clearly revealed to us. We should be consumed and directed to do His already revealed will for us which puts us in a spiritual position to recognize His providential and sovereign hand guiding us in our lives.

In today’s scripture, God’s clearly revealed will for us unfolds. It is two-fold. First, the pursuit of Christ-like holiness is the will of God for us – For this is the will of God, your sanctification (holiness). The whole of the Christian life is this – a progression in holiness. It is God’s design in our salvation – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him (Ephesians 1:3-4). We must start here. If holiness isn’t our passion and pursuit, we are out of the will of God and that means no fellowship, no discernment, and no need to pray, “Father, what would you have me to do and where would you have me go?” Holiness is the first priority in God’s will for us. Jesus even prayed it, “Father, sanctify them (make them holy) in your truth; your Word is truth” (John 17:17).

The second aspect of God’s revealed will for us is “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The application is clear here as well. If we are a complaining people, a people lacking thanksgiving and gratitude, we cannot pray, “Father, reveal your will for me in where I should go, what I should do, and when.” Why? Out of fellowship. Read Numbers 14 and see what God thinks and how He treats His complaining people. It is not easy reading and especially if we are prone to complain about anything.

Knowing God’s will. It isn’t mysterious and the best thing we may do in our Christian life is commit to doing His already revealed will for us – be holy, be thankful. Then, we may trust His not yet revealed will to unfold in our lives and we will be spiritually sensitive to discern as we maintain fellowship with Him.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I ignore Your already revealed will for me and seek something not yet revealed.”

QUOTE: “Don’t seek the will of God that is not revealed until you are actively obeying His will already revealed.”