Last week we looked at committing ourselves to God’s will. Now consider an area of your life in which you wonder if you are doing God’s will. We will go through five steps for examining our hearts and choosing God’s will. This is not so much an exercise in finding God’s will as it is an exercise in guiding our hearts to abiding in God.
Five Steps Toward Pursuing in God’s Will
- We remind ourselves to consider God’s will.
- We examine ourselves to determine if we are really open to pursuing God’s will.
- We try to discern God’s will.
- We ask ourselves if we are now willing to do God’s will.
- We do God’s will.
The first movement is to get in the habit of reminding ourselves to consider God’s will for the decisions we make or attitudes we embrace. This is simply looking to him for his will. Common reasons we don’t do this include busyness, human forgetfulness or a desire (sometimes unconscious) to avoid God’s will because we don’t think we will like it.
The second movement in pursuing God’s will is asking ourselves if we are truly open to pursuing God’s will, even if we don’t know what it is. Once we decide to consider God’s will, we may still close our hearts to his will because of what we suspect it will be. Are we really open to whatever he may desire? Are we really open to changing our thoughts or plans? Or, are we trying to subvert the process so that we can confirm our desires?
The third movement in pursuing God’s will, once we are open to it, is to use discernment to discover God’s will if it isn’t already obvious. Obviously, if our will is to do something destructive then no more discernment is necessary. Otherwise, we need to spend some time applying principles of discernment.
The fourth step is being willing to do God’s will now. Now that we have reached a decision will we follow through? Will we start the process? Or will the unpleasant aspect of the decision stop us? There is no choice that is better than God’s choice.
The fifth step is actually doing God’s will. You start down the path. Jesus said: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46, NIV). Remember to depend on God’s grace. Remember your threefold living power supply (the Holy Spirit, abiding in Christ, your New Adam self) and God’s grace flowing through Scripture, fellowship and prayer.
If we have made these movements then we have done what we can. The rest is up to God. We can have peace knowing that we are abiding in God in Christ.
