God’s Promise - What is God’s Will for us?
Throughout the bible, there are many accounts of God telling us about His Will, the plans he has for us, and the greater idea for restoration after the fall. However, after generations, Christians and theologians tend to have different opinions on God’s will and what that means for us. Although not considered a primary doctrine, the way you view God’s Will (how He works and how that fits into your life) will ultimately shape how you view the world and how you view God.
I’ve always been fascinated with God’s Will and hearing people’s perception and how that fits into their life. Over the past year, I’ve heard a lot of different opinions and language that has made me think more of this subject. During testimonies the most common statement I would hear is “I knew it was God because of …” or “I knew God had this planned in my life for me” These statements never brought me encouragement, or had me feel emotional for the person giving the testimony, rather it had me ask the question, “Well, How did you know it was God?” This feeling and question isn’t meant to diminish someone's faith or experience they had, certainly I believe that in some way and manner, God was moving in their life, but how can we know for certain that a specific event was God. Well, we can’t. And that is okay. As humans, we feel emotions, and have our own will, and sometimes we like to associate our will with God’s. An example; if a positive life event happened, that you were praying for, turns out in favor of what you wanted. We praise God. On the contrary, if we feel like we are stuck in a rut, and continue to pray that we leave this rut, but our prayer never seems to be answered, we scold God. These examples are pretty sparse, and in no way am I trying to solidify two examples as evidence for God’s will and how He works. God is much more vast, and detailed, and there are a lot of details we never know about.
Nonetheless, this begs the question, What is God’s Will for Us?
A major note here, I changed my language about God’s Will with God’s Promise. This helps change the precedent of understanding, and feeling like things are predetermined, planned out, to understanding human will and how that intercombines with God’s works. When we think of Will, we think of thought of, planned out, and detailed. In my view, this isn’t necessarily true. Yes, there are things that are predetermined, planned out, and will carry out. This is Jesus’ resurrection and future return. Besides this, everything else is subject to human will and God’s works. By changing the language from Will to Promise, this allows us to live our life with understanding of our own human will, the fallen world and the sin and evil it holds, and God’s works. This also leads me into the three truth’s that culminate into the language change.
God Loves Me
Jesus’ Resurrection
The Trinity is working in my life!
When thinking about God’s Promise (Will), I hold onto several truths to keep me centered. The first truth is, God loves me. The most basic, and also a complex truth. I know that God loves me and wants the best for me. The complexity comes with the ideas about sin. (Realistically, a different topic from today). Knowing that God loves me, and that it doesn’t change, it is unconditional and unfailing, helps me stay centered with this topic, and other deep secondary doctrine topics. The second truth is Jesus’ Resurrection, and the end times. Today, we are currently living out the end times, Jesus has not returned yet, and judgement day is not here. With this in mind, we have to be ready. We know that Jesus died, and rose and ascended and we have the promise of His return. The third truth is God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all working in my life. This is true, Jesus is still working to redeem not only my heart, but other’s hearts. The Holy Spirit is working to convict and guide me. God, our father, is continually giving His love, mercy and grace every single second.
These truth’s are fundamental for grasping at God’s Promise, and quite frankly and theological topic/debate, especially secondary topics.
Now with these three truths, we can start talking about God’s Promise in our life. We have to remember that we are called to love one another, and make Jesus known to everyone. That is the utmost important thing when talking about God’s Promise. If we are constantly pursuing Jesus, loving others, and making an effort for those to know Jesus, then everything else does not matter.
Since this is a long subject, I’ll leave it here. In the next few editions, I’ll dive deeper using scripture, examples, and my thought process of applying these truths in my life.
