Gods Will For Your Life

[HAMel]

What is God's Will for your life?

I came to Christ in 1972. Thirty eight years ago! After a few months of trying to find my way as a Christian I spoke with my Pastor asking him what God's Will was for my life. He hastily told me to read the Word, that I'd find it and out the door he went. Needless to say this left me a bit perplexed.

How many of you have felt compelled to do something for the Lord, jump into a work feeling as though this is where the Lord wanted you to be for sure, only to realize a few weeks later that you were wrong?

Often, people jump into a "work for the Lord" and in the process they get the cart before the horse. Has this ever happened to you?

It took a few years for me to get a grip on this matter and to realized what Gods Will is for my life.

So, I'd like to ask you...what is God's Will for your life? After a bit I'll provide you with my insights on the matter.

 

[annsni]

God's will is that you obey His Word and glorify Him. From there, all else is pretty much extra. Seriously, if you do those two things, you will be living a good life. God doesn't have every detail worked out for our lives - what job, where to live, etc. - although at times He does orchestrate things for His purpose. Stay in prayer, read the Word and as you become more and more like Him, your will will begin to line up with His.

 

[HAMel]

Thank you, annsni. Anyone else?

 

[David Michael Harris]

Thank you, annsni. Anyone else?

Paul states quite clearly that we can know Gods will for our lives.

For example he tells us that we should remain in the condition as when we were saved. Slave or free etc, I was working on a farm for an employer who were Christian, a great blessing to me.

Then we have the obvious things as obeying Scripture with regard to our behavior etc, which we all have problems with at times.

It's the Lords will with regards to Christian work that may be harder to discern and to know that we have to draw near to Him and seek I would say. God is real and He will tell you if you search with all your heart.

God is jealous for us. Think on that, He wants us close to Him.

 

[Tom Bryant]

For me, God's will is a relationship with Him. It's part of the relationship of the sheep and the shepherd. If I am right with Him, I will be in the right place at the right time.

Too often we make God's will a place or a human.

 

[HAMel]

I'll cut right to the chase here and provide you all with my understanding of the matter.

Gods Will for our lives..., as I see it and as He enlightened me with a while back is that our lives are to "imitate" the life of Christ.

Over the years I have personally witnessed a lot of people who became involved in some activity within their Church under the assumption that God has told them and/or lead them in this direction or that direction only to find themselves disillusioned, frustrated, angry and on occasion, embarrassed over their failure at which time Satan goes to work. I know this as it happened to me. For sure, the Lord appreciates the effort but it might not be specifically where He wanted the person.

Over the past 38 years I've personally met three men who gave up their ministry as they finally came to the conclusion the Lord really did not call them to preach. A ton of things they can do for the Lord but not specifically to be the Pastor of a Church.

The Lord wants us to imitate the life of Christ! Only then can He really use us! Often people get the cart before the horse. They feel that if they go do something, anything, the Lord will bless said effort.

As we all know, the Lord tells us to follow first and then he will lead. We can't follow very well if we jump into something because "we think" it. Jesus followed the Will of the Father! We must imitate in our life, the life of Christ.

 

[annsni]

I don't know that, when God calls us to something, it's for time eternity. I think it's entirely possible to be a pastor for a season and then move on to other ministries if it seems God is calling you elsewhere. I also think that sometimes God calls us to things that will stretch us in ways we've never seen and the easy way out is to just quit rather than seeing if this is really what God is bringing us through or whatever. Our pastor speaks of how, when he first came to our church, he had a 3 year ministry just like Jesus. The first year he was wonderful, the second year he made some enemies and the third year they tried to crucify him. There was seriously a secret meeting to oust him and he was ready to go but he really felt that leaving was wrong so he told the church that they'd have to vote him out in order for him to leave. They didn't and in 2 weeks, he will be celebrating 42 years of ministry in our church.

So I don't think that God always calls us to the one mission for our entire lives and I also think some give up on the task God called them to because it's hard. But this is where being close to the Father will make all the difference in the world.

 

[Tom Butler]

Beyond what is written in God's word, a large question is, how can I know God's will for my life. That's another thread, and I'll start it elsewhere in this section.

 

[HAMel]

annsni, you missed my point!

Otherwise, of course the Lord can have us "here" for a while and then over "there" for a while and back over "yonder" at his pleasure. No problem with that.