The Will of God

Have you ever said, "I want to know God's will for my life?"  Not only have I said it, but I've heard countless others express the same sentiment.  But the longer I ponder the question, the less certain I am of the desire.  Do I really want to know God's will for my life?  Or if the truth be known, is what I really want for God to choose one of my previously selected courses of action as the least offensive to Him?

The will of God is a scary thing.  As I look at those faithful to Him in Scripture, I see people whose lives were miserable from a human vantage point.  Although Job is an iconic example, a list of those who qualify would be easy to compile and long to complete.  Did Abraham really ever settle down once God announced his plan?  Was Moses journey through the wilderness with the Jews ever fun?  David's psalms are full of pain and lament.  Prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos were called upon to experience great difficulty and rejection particularly from those deemed spiritual leaders by the culture.

The fact that of the original twelve disciples, ten were martyred, one committed suicide, and the other died an old man in exile ought to give us pause.  Timothy wanted to leave Ephesus, Paul told him to stay.  Peter wrote about suffering shortly before being crucified upside down by an insane emperor.  Do I really want to know God's will for my life when I worship a God with this set of priorities?  His is an eternal perspective, one that attaches little weight to the comforts and conveniences we implicitly associate with being a faithful Christian in America.  What I want is only significant to Him because He loves me.  But if there is something better for me or the kingdom, that is what His will is going to be -- whether I like it or not.

We like to avoid passages of Scripture that make great demands on us.  On our local Christian radio station, they have a "Spirit verse of the day" that almost never places any expectation on us.  These verses seem strategically selected to come from the God who may be inclined to say, "Have a Nice Day."  But the God of Scripture seldom seems inclined to such superficiality.  If we are in pursuit of His will for our lives, we are likely to have a battle on our hands.  In writing to the Romans, Paul expresses these sentiments as he begins talking about our response to what he has spent the previous 11 chapters saying God has already done:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spirituala act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Offering our bodies to God, refusing to conform to worldly patterns, and being transformed in our thinking precedes knowing God's will.  These requirements seem prerequisite to truly knowing the will of God.  Now do you want to know God's will for your life?  Do we desire God's will with a strong enough holy passion to motivate this level of personal sacrifice?  Or do we want to continue playing "Let's Make a Deal" with God and offer Him the opportunity to choose behind either what's behind door #1 or door #2?