Is God’s Will A Pre-Determined Path For Your Life? The Answer Might Surprise You
Should I take that job? Is he the one? What should I study in school? Should we sell the house? These are big questions related to discovering God’s will for your life. Behind all of these questions is the reality that we all want to know what God knows. We want Divine perspective on life. We want God to give us insider information that will result in his blessing. We want this because being in God’s will in the best place to be.
However, before we can do God’s will we have to understand God’s will. To help you understand God’s will I want to introduce you to the God’s Will Wheel.
The works of God are the things that God is going to do in the world regardless of what anyone else thinks. He doesn’t take a vote. He doesn’t ask your opinion. He doesn’t pass a bill through the House and Senate. He just does it. You can get on board and join him or you can get run over by it, but God is going to accomplish what he has set out to accomplish. Examples of this from the Bible are creation, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the fulfillment of the promise that one day all things will be made new. God works to accomplish his purposes in the world.
Second are the ways of God. These are his moral laws and instructions for living. God calls us to be selfless, generous, forgiving, & pure. He instructs us to show honor, care for the poor, and look after the widow. He tells us to avoid violence, flee from temptation, and go the extra mile. These are the ways of God. One of the great things about God is that he can use things that are outside of his ways to accomplish his work! For example, Acts 2:23 says, “This man (Christ) was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” It is outside the ways of God to murder someone and yet it was the intended work of God that Jesus would die! This should encourage those of you that feel that because you have walked outside the ways of God that he can’t work in your life. He can! And he is!
Third, is the will of God. This is the area where we ask all of our questions about discovering God’s personal guidance for our lives. The kinds of questions we ask are “when,” “where,” and “what” questions. When should I ask her to marry me? When should we move? When should I start looking for a new job? Where should I go to college? Where should we raise our family? Where should I go for the internship? What has God called me to do? What am I supposed to do with my life?
Discerning all the right answers to these big questions can be a terrifying process filled with a lot of pressure. Why do we agonize over God’s will so much? Probably because you have been taught that God’s will for your life is a pre-determined path that you have to walk perfectly or you are outside of God’s will. It is scary to think that in a moment of weakness or poor judgment you could make a wrong decision that puts you off of God’s path for your life. Now you have to spend all your time trying to get back on the path of God’s will. If it’s so easy to get off God’s path for your life, it can be really hard to find your way back on. I think God’s will is something totally different than what you may have previously thought!
God’s will isn’t a pre-determined path for your life that you have to carefully walk or you miss it. God’s will is like a canvas.
Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians is a book about Jesus being the center of everything (Jesus in the Middle is a sermon exploring this idea), and in this very theological book Paul says, “whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.” What if the center of knowing God’s will is to know his ways? What if, when you walk according to his ways you are in the center of his will? That changes everything! It also changes the God’s Will Wheel to look like this:
I don’t think God is as concerned about when, where, and what questions as he is about how, why and who questions. He doesn’t care as much about where you go to college as much as he cares about how you live your life when show up on campus. He doesn’t care so much when you move as much as why you move. It’s now where you go to work, it’s why you show up to work and how you treat your co-workers. It isn’t so much what you are doing with your life as much as who you are becoming.
I think we worry about so many decisions looking for God’s specific direction for our lives and God is like, “Here is a canvas – COLOR!” Should you teach third grade or fifth grade? Yes! Just go and be the teacher that God wants you to be! Should you spend the summer on a mission trip or working at a church camp? Sure! Just don’t spend the summer in your Mom’s basement playing Xbox because God didn’t give you specific direction.
I submit to you that the center of being in his will is living according to his ways because when you walk in his ways he can lead you into his will. What difference does it make who you marry if you aren’t the right person when you get married. You’ll turn the right marriage into the wrong marriage because you aren’t the right person.
I admit, there are times when God calls a specific person at a specific time for a specific purpose. A good example of this is Jonah. God tells Jonah to go to Ninevah. Jonah says, “What is plan B?” God says, “Go to Ninevah. You can go to Ninevah in a boat or you can go to Ninevah in a fish, but you are going to Ninevah.” I’m just worried that too many Christians are waiting for that specific calling or direction in their lives and are frozen in inaction while they are waiting. God’s first calling is to live according to his ways. When we do, he’ll lead us into this will.
Emmaus Road Church in Fort Collins is a great church where you can learn about God’s ways by studying the Bible and being in community with others. Join us each Sunday at 10:00am. To listen to the sermon this post is based on, click Fort Collins is in Colorado.