Tag: God’s will

Categories
Christian Living

Living in the center of God’s will can be a tremendous struggle.

a photo of a dartboard with a dart in the center symbolizing us trying to live in the center of God's will

My previous post was titled You Were Placed Where You Are For A Specific Purpose. Today, I want to share a little bit more about that idea, because sometimes our perfect obedience to God’s will puts us in the midst of a tremendous struggle.

So often, we seem to think that if we are in the center of God’s will, then everything will work out just right for us. But then we wonder what is wrong with us, because though we are striving to live for God, everything is NOT working out just right in our lives. If this is where you find yourself, wondering why you are struggling so much in the midst of serving God to the best of your ability… know that you are not alone and that you are in good company. Because that is exactly where Jeremiah found himself.

Jeremiah was told that God created him for a specific purpose. But when Jeremiah started living out that purpose, he felt frustrated. So frustrated in fact that he complained to God about it (have you ever been there? maybe you are there now?). Here is what he said about living and speaking for God and what it “got him in return” regarding respect and favor with others:

O LORD, you deceived me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. Now I am mocked every day; everyone laughs at me. When I speak, words burst out. “Violence and destruction!” [are the words You have me] shout. So these messages from the LORD have made me a household joke. Jeremiah 20:7-8

Jeremiah was tired of being in the center of God’s will, because he learned that it doesn’t always mean it will be easy, comfortable, safe, or peaceful. He was tired of the struggle. Maybe you are too. We live in a fallen world with sinful people all around us (and we ourselves are sinful, too). And all of this can make life very difficult, even when we are living for God… even when we are in the center of His will.

So Jeremiah learned what Jesus later says – that he is in the midst of unhealthy people who need healing (or rather a Healer) brought to them. That is the message that you have for others in the midst of this difficult and unhealthy world — That we are a bunch of sick people and we need a Savior. This is your message. This is your purpose.

Based on the words of the Bible, I believe that each of us who are Christ-followers are called to be like Jeremiah, which means that we will constantly struggle to help people who are far from God to begin to have a vision for what life can be like with God in control.

God has a plan for you, a purpose. You are special to Him and you are loved by Him – and you are to carry His love to the spiritually unhealthy people around you with the hope that God will use you to transform one person. Because even if your message and your life only transform one person – isn’t it worth it? For how do you weigh the value of someone’s eternal soul?

This life can be (and will be) a struggle, but God will be with you as you walk a difficult path due to difficult people. Keep pressing on with Him. Working with Him and walking with Him is worth it! Jeremiah found this to be true and says so in the next few verses. (Which I will share with you in my next post, but if you can’t wait that long, then go read Jeremiah 20:9-11.)

Categories
Jesus

The Restraint of Jesus

“The Restraint of Jesus”
  by brian rushing

I’m sure that you’ve noticed this as well, but…
Sometimes the words of the Bible are confusing.
Sometimes when I read it, I find that the choices that God made are confusing.
Sometimes the things that Jesus said and did are confusing.
loads of question marks symbolizing the questions about Jesus such as his restraint of using his divine attributes
For example, how is it that Jesus – being fully God and fully human – seems to not know certain things (“Who touched my clothes?” “How many loaves do you have?”), while at other times He knows things it is impossible to know (“You have had five husbands.” “Lazarus is dead.”)?

How is it that Jesus can be hungry or tired or thirsty, while also being able to multiply fish and bread from thin air, change water to wine, command storms, heal sickness, and raise the dead? Was Jesus lying when He said He was thirsty or didn’t know something? No, Jesus never was dishonest, so that can’t be the answer. At times it seems that Jesus is fully human with little or no divinity, and at other times He doesn’t seem human at all.

Because of this back-and-forth situation we find in Jesus, I can find myself scratching my head about Him – wondering why it seems that Jesus’ divine nature and power are sometimes reduced. But I now realize that “reduced” is not the right word:

“The impression of Jesus which the Gospels give is not that he was wholly bereft of divine knowledge and power, but that he drew on both intermittently, while being content for much of the time not to do so. The impression, in other words, is not so much one of deity reduced as of divine capacities restrained.”

“The God-man did not know independently, any more than he acted independently. Just as he did not do all that he could have done, because certain things were not his Father’s will, so he did not consciously know all that he might have known, but only what the Father willed him to know. His knowing, like the rest of his activity, was bounded by his Father’s will. And therefore the reason why he was ignorant of (for instance) the date of his return was not that he had given up the power to know all things at the Incarnation, but that the Father had not willed that he should have this particular piece of knowledge while on earth….”

This answers a lot of questions for me about why Jesus did what He did and said what He said. It was all based on His connection to the Father – following His will completely.

This also helps me realize that there are times where certain things will not be in the Father’s will for my life, and certain things that the Father has not willed for me to know yet. All things are permissible for me, but not all things are beneficial, so if I am walking perfectly in God’s will (which Jesus always did), then God will give me the knowledge I need when I need it. And He will give me the ability I need when I need it.

Regarding Jesus’ restraint and the Father’s will, Packer concludes the idea with:

We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory… a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony —spiritual even more than physical— that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through his poverty might become rich. The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity —hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory— because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.

I am so glad that Jesus restrained Himself in accordance with the will of the Father, so that the messages of hope of Christmas and Easter became the greatest messages I ever heard and believed.


        (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)


Categories
Worship

Learning to Pray in God’s Will

Do you ever wonder if we have been taught to pray incorrectly?

Have we tried to use God as our genie? Or maybe we’ve thought of Him more like Santa Claus – hoping that if we are “good enough” that He will give us the things on our wishlist.

Our prayers often seem to lean in that direction. But God is not a genie we can manipulate when we feel like it, nor is He a jolly spy in a red suit who is “always watching” so as to put you on the gift-getting list when you meet his “good enough” standard. (Which is kinda creepy when you think about it!)

But God IS always at work and wants us to be working with Him. He wants us to talk to Him about things that He cares about. And what He most cares about is the spiritual condition of people. That’s why Jesus went to the cross. He didn’t go to the cross to fulfill my my desires of more stuff, and though He cares about my physical condition, that’s not why He went to the cross, either. No, He went for my spiritual situation to be changed from death… to life! So if God is most concerned with spiritual matters, then what should we focus our prayers on?

However, we do not spend time praying about spiritual things near as much as we do for physical things. In the Bible, we see prayers about confession of sins for individuals and the nations, we see prayers that go on and on about adoring and worshiping God’s characteristics and His laws, we see prayers about bringing glory to God, we see prayers about revival and turning people’s hearts back to Him, we see prayers about lost people coming into His kingdom.

In the Bible we see prayers that are focused on God’s will, and yet we often do not pray that way. We spend more time praying for the increased comfort of those who are already saved (us and our family and friends) than we do praying for the eternal destination of those who have no relationship with Jesus.

Perhaps we need a change. Perhaps we need to use the model of the Bible more than whatever model taught us to pray about the physical.

If we want to receive God’s blessings and have our prayers answered, I believe that we must ask, seek, and knock with prayers that are in-line with God’s will. He is not going to give us every one of our heart’s desires until every one of our heart’s desires are exactly in line with His will. But if we ask where He is at work and how we should pray, He will show us and we will be more blessed than ever before.

What do you think are some of the things He most cares about that we need to include in our prayers for today?