Discerning the will of God for our lives often seems to be an intimidating challenge. There is so much to consider that we hardly know where to begin.
There are three guidelines that can help to reduce the immensity of the task: 1. Love is always God’s will. 2. We must do our part. 3. Exercising faith is important.
God’s Will Is Always Love
Many times, we are intent on seeking God’s specific will in a situation. Is it God’s will that I do this? Should I take this job? Should I start this project? No matter what actions we might be contemplating, we can be sure that God’s will is always love.
It may not seem helpful, but considering if a choice is loving can narrow the field of choices. It’s like trying to find your hotel room. If you aren’t even in the right hotel, you can be sure you won’t find the right room. If the action you’re contemplating is not loving, you can be sure it isn’t God’s will. Deciding whether various alternatives are loving may eliminate some, leaving a smaller number from which to choose.
What Is Love?
Of course, accurately applying the criteria of love requires that you know what love is. Many people use the example of Jesus’ life to guide them in understanding what love is. I find these three definitions of love from “The Urantia Book” to be quite useful also. Love is:
- the desire to do good to others,
- friendship,
- unselfishness.
Used in various combinations, these definitions improve our judgment. For example, to do without necessities to be able to give your children unnecessary luxuries may appear to be unselfish. However, it is easy to see that such an act is not good for them, so it is not loving. Sometimes, as in this situation, being loving requires us to say, “No.”
We Need to Do Our Part
I have run across people who were afraid to seek God’s guidance very actively. They felt that they should make their own decisions, rather than taking the easy way by asking God to make those decisions for them. Actually, seeking God’s will is not easy.
God does not give us the answers with no effort from us. We are in partnership with God, and we must do our part in the decision-making. Sometimes our part involves gathering information about a situation. It usually includes projecting the various alternative choices. We may need to get the reflections or advice of friends. We will assess the choices to determine whether each one is loving or not. It is challenging to get our selfish will out of the way and sincerely dedicate ourselves to choosing the best alternative (God’s will). Our part in seeking God’s will always involves prayer. Prayer prepares us to receive God’s input into our lives.
We Can Try It Out.
There are times when our part is to try out a possible choice. I can recall discussing a possible course of action with friends one evening. One finally suggested, “Let’s just try it for a while. Let’s start making plans.” So, we did.
We discussed how we would proceed, divided up responsibilities and made lists. By the end of the evening, I knew what was best for me. I couldn’t proceed with our plans. I couldn’t live that way. When we cannot carry out a decision with peace in our hearts, it isn’t God’s will for us.
We Need to Be Active.
Discovering God’s will requires a highly active person. If we haven’t done our part, God doesn’t have much to work with. And we aren’t going to be very successful at making the best choice. On the other hand, the person who has stretched their ability to find and consider all the alternatives they can, has a better chance to choose wisely.
The soul who seeks God’s presence in prayer is more likely to receive helpful insight. The one who has assessed the lovingness of each alternative, has removed the selfish choices from consideration. The person who is wholeheartedly dedicated to doing God’s will, regardless of what that is, has an excellent chance of discovering the highest and most loving path.
Faith Is Essential.
Once we are actively working on our part of the partnership we have with God, then we can be sure we will receive help. In fact, we need to feel confident of that. Exercising faith is essential to the process of finding God’s will for us.
I can remember one of those red-letter days in my life—the kind of day that jumps out at me as I scan my memories. In prayer time on this particular day, I had somehow mentally meandered across the idea that it would be fun to see with God’s eyes. So, I asked for that way of seeing. Then I started acting as if I were doing just that! I imagined how God might see the person I was thinking about. I probably wasn’t exercising much faith, but God seemed to consider it enough.
Suddenly, I knew I was seeing more like God sees. My attitude about the person was transformed. I saw him as my spiritual child. I loved him weaknesses and all. I yearned for his growth and maturity. The effect was electrifying in a quiet way. This experience would never have happened without my faith being strong enough that God was real to me. I expected to be given insight.
That insight was much greater than I’d anticipated. But then, God’s gracious gifts frequently are. Exercising faith is so important to finding God’s will, because if we don’t really believe it is possible, we have almost no chance to succeed.
Faith Gives Us Persistence.
Faith will also carry us through the times when it takes longer to find God’s will than we think it should, times when it seems no one is listening to our prayers. Faith will carry us through with relative calm and poise. Then, when we finally catch a glimpse of God’s will, we won’t miss it because of our disappointment and doubt.
Faith will also give us the courage we need when it’s time to act, even though we still have doubts about whether we have, in fact, found God’s will for us. And when we discover through the test of living that we have not found God’s will, faith gives us the persistence to start looking again…and eventually triumph.
If we are using the highest standard we know (love), if we are doing our best to do our part in seeking God’s will, if we are exercising faith in his reality and his help, then we are bound to begin finding God’s will for us.
God is going to see that it happens!
