Do you want to know God's will for Your life? Many believers are stressed out trying to know God's will. Sometimes we think it's hard since we can't look up a specific verse in the Bible that will tell us who to marry, where to work, or in which city to live in.
These things would fall into the category of "God's Specific Will for Our Lives". They are important to know. It's also very important for us to know God's general will for our lives, that which is true for every believer.
We have what is God's general will for all believers right here in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Be joyful always. It sounds so simple, yet it is so challenging. Yes, it actually says "always." Then pray, continually. That means all the time. Give thanks in all circumstances, not just in good circumstances, but in ALL.
These three things are very simple. It does not take a PhD in Theology to understand them. It does take the power of the Holy Spirit to practically apply them to our daily lives.
Thankfully, I can say that I'm doing a lot better in applying these verses to my life than I did years ago, but I cannot honestly say that I practice them "always, continually, and in all circumstances." I'm still in the process of getting my mind renewed and yielding myself to the Lord as He matures me in Christ.
Some might say, “I'm not interested in being joyful all the time, I just want to know God's specific will for my life.” Maybe God's specific will is for you to marry Jane, but Jane isn't attracted to grumpy men. Therefore, embracing joyfulness always will lead you to God's specific will—Jane, who is now attracted to your joyful attitude and positive outlook.
This passage tells us to pray continually. If your only perspective of prayer is you talking to God, I'm not sure this is possible. If you understand that prayer is a dialogue, it's not just us talking to God, but it's also God talking to us, then praying continually is much more doable. It takes maintaining a humble heart with a listening ear inclining itself to hear God speak at any time.
Maybe you're trying to discover God's will for your job situation. You could be frustrated with the job you currently have and contemplating changing jobs. Maybe you should. Maybe you shouldn't. You might not know God's specific will for your job situation, but we know that His general will is for you to give thanks in all circumstances including the job that you currently have.
Maybe your complaining attitude is what keeps your boss from giving you the promotion that you would like to have. Instead of holding on to a bad attitude, if you would embrace giving thanks in all circumstances with an attitude of gratitude, you might find that favor starts to come your way and that people will want to work with you.
Obeying God's general will for your life will often pull you into knowing His specific will for your life. I would propose that complaining and negativity stop up our ears from hearing God's voice in the continuous dialogue of prayer. Joyfulness and thanksgiving open up our ears to hear the Father's voice and tune our spirit's ears to the frequency of heaven so we can know God's specific will for our lives.
What is worship? It is my understanding that the word worship comes from an old English word worthship, where it is the worth that you attribute to something. This is a great question for us today, “How much is Jesus worth to us?”
If our only view of worship is a song, a sound, a musical style or whoever we perceive to be the latest, coolest worship band or leader, then we’re seeing it all wrong.
How much do our lives attribute worth to God? Do we really see Him in all of His holiness, majesty and perfect love and give Him the corresponding worship He deserves?
Do you know where worship is first mentioned in the Bible? The setting in which we find the first mention of worship in Scripture is not one of electric guitars, drums or pianos, neither is it a setting of cymbals clashing or choirs singing, it’s not even a vocal soloist. We find no images of worship bands and worship leaders, no music at all. Not the latest worship chorus off of a recording from a great church or even an old hymn being sung.
The context in which we first find worship being mentioned in Scripture is in the book of Genesis when Abraham went to sacrifice his son of promise. When God told him to sacrifice his son, his response was one of quick, surrendered obedience. It says that He got up early the next morning to go sacrifice his son.
What does he say while he is on his way to sacrifice? He says that he is going to worship. Why? Because through his obedient sacrifice he was declaring that God is worthy and that God had more value to him than even the strong, intimate, powerful bond between a parent and a child. Abraham was demonstrating the worth of God in his life.
In light of this, do you live a life of worship?
I absolutely hold to the biblical understanding that God is sovereign, most any Christian would say they ascribe to that notion as well. But then the question becomes, what do we mean by the sovereignty of God?
The word sovereign is a compound word that means to reign over or reign above.
We know that throughout human history, there have been sovereign kings in different nations. Those rulers had the supreme authority in their country. Did that mean that each sovereign king controlled every little detail of everyone’s decisions in their country? Of course not. But, people’s personal choices under his rule didn’t lessen his sovereignty. We can see, in the realm of human beings, that a ruler can be sovereign while people under him still have freedom.
Let’s look at a couple of verses. Luke 6:38 does not say, “Give and, in the mystery of God’s sovereignty, it may or may not be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over might be poured into your lap, you never know because it’s a sovereign mystery. For the measure you use has nothing to do with what will be measured to you.”
NO! It does not say that! Jesus emphatically says, “Give and it WILL be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, WILL be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it WILL be measured to you.”
It seems pretty clear that Jesus is being very direct here that there’s no middle ground. It’s pretty black and white. According to what Jesus says in this passage, who is the one who measures how much we will receive? The devil? God, who is controlling all things? Or us?
We determine it by what we measure to give to others.
Again, God is sovereign, and we are not, but there is a whole lot of freedom, and thus responsibility that He delegates to us.
Look at what Paul does not say in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. For a man reaps what God has already predetermined that he will reap regardless of what he sows.”
NO! It doesn’t say that! It says that WE reap what WE sow.
So, who has God empowered in your life to determine what you reap? The devil? The government? Your parents? Your grandparents? Your in-laws? Your boss?
The answer is, you. He has empowered you to determine what you are going to reap according to what you sow.
I understand that this might come off as an over-simplification of these principles that are at work in the fabric of the universe. While I might run the risk of over-simplification, the fact is many of us make God’s principles too complex. We need to embrace the simplicity of what the Word shows us clearly, as taught by Christ and reaffirmed by Paul’s teaching. God is sovereign - He rules and reigns over everything - and He has delegated responsibility to us.
Do you love the Word of God? I hope you do. I've been reading God's Word on a regular basis for most of my life, seriously digging into the Word starting around age 15. That's a long time. (It's been over 10 years now.) The more time goes on and the more familiar I become with it, the more I appreciate the Word of God.
One of the things that I love about God and His Word is that He is not, therefore His Word is not, one dimensional. God's Word deals with many different topics and will deal with our hearts and lives on several different levels.
A few years ago I read this verse, and I began to discover how amazing it is. In 2 Corinthians 8:2 (NIV) Paul is bragging about the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
Wow! What a statement. I think usually we don't consider those terms going together. It doesn't just say trial and joy, but severe trial and overflowing joy. Not just poverty and generosity, but extreme poverty and rich generosity.
I don't know about you, but when I think of trials, I don't usually think about joy. I usually don't envision generosity going together with poverty. Why is that?
In our humanity, we have a limited perspective. We tend to think that it's impossible to have joy in the middle of the trial and, if we're impoverished, we can't be generous. But God is the God of the impossible, and He calls us to do the impossible with Him.
The only way we can do the impossible is with Him, never without Him. To be joyful in trials and to be generous in poverty can sound like contradictions. But if, by the grace of God, the Macedonian church did it, so can we.
Our tendency is to think that we can have joy WHEN the trial is over. We tend to think, "I sure would like to be more giving, I don't want to be stingy, but right now money is tight so I don't have a choice. But WHEN I have more money, then I can afford to be generous."
Sounds logical doesn't it? Yes, it is. It's earth-bound logic based on mere human reasoning. It does not take into consideration the fact that we have a really, big powerful loving Father, who is with us right now, in the middle of our circumstances, empowering us to do the impossible.
You might say, "That sounds really nice, but come on, I'm only human." Remember that in 1 Corinthians 3:3, Paul rebuked the Corinthians for "acting like mere men." Why would Paul do that? Doesn't he know we're human?
Yes, we are human, but we are not JUST human. The God of the impossible, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, now lives within us. He empowers us to be joyful even in trials and generous even in poverty.
It's easier said than done, but true nonetheless. It's possible by the grace of God.