So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.
13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Colossians 1:9-14 (NLT)
How often have I asked God to make His will known to me? Too often. I say “too often” because many times I do really know what He wants me to be doing; I’m just hoping that if I look penitent and flutter my eyelashes, He might tell me something I want to hear!
I have often heard people say that it would have been helpful for God to simply write across the sky in big letters the answers to our questions, like what is His will in my life. The complaint being that God is mysterious and vague on some basic questions. And I confess I have looked up to the blue sky and raised my eyebrows like, “OK. Just give me a sign. A burning bush or move the sun back 12 hours! Or just write it out for me!” And one day, I got an answer.
Paul says in this letter to the Colossians that he is praying for them to have the knowledge of God’s will along with wisdom and understanding. And so there is my first point to knowing God’s will in my life – spend time talking to Him. There is no shortcut to this. It’s spending time every day in His world and listening to what God has to say and learning about His character, how He has behaved or answered in similar situations. When Paul asked God to remove the pain he was in, not once but three times, what did God say? 2 Corinthians 12:9 says God told Paul His grace is enough and when Paul is weak, God will be strong.
Jesus said in Matthew 22 that everything else that was known about God up to that point could hang from “Love the LORD with all my heart” and “Love my neighbor as myself.” If I am trying to discern what God wants me to do in my life I can discount anything that does not demonstrate my love for God and my love for neighbor and myself.
Jesus also said that anything that I do should provide light in the darkness of this world and glorify the Father (Matthew 5). And that may be when knowing God’s will and doing His will can depart ways. Whatever I do in my life, it’s not about me. It’s not about getting recognition or doing the miraculous. It is about glorifying the Father through such transparency that no one may ever know that I did anything or remember my name.
God has done so much for me. My life is assured to be eternal because of Jesus blood sacrifice on the Cross. I am a new person now. Jesus shows me how to live a fruitful life and be a conduit of God’s love and forgiveness.
God’s will for me is to live in His Light and encourage others to also live in His Light. Simple. Help me to do that today, LORD.
Spirit of the Living God written by Daniel Iverson, choral group unknown
