God-Purpose

Let me preface this post by apologizing for not updating in so long, to whomever has been reading this. I just read Dream's comment on my last post and realized how long it's been since I've last written here! And now since I've figured out how to get comment-notification emails, I'll actually notice when someone comments here.

Anyway, I was thinking of a subject for this post and I thought of the process of discovering God's will for a person's life. But instead of entitling it simply "God's Will", I decided to title it God-Purpose, because truly a child of God should wish all his purposes to be God's.

And if you think about that last statement for a moment, if we as believers could simply know what God's purposes are, it would be so much easier to match our actions to His great plan. Unfortunately, we don't hear some voice in our head every time we make a decision saying, "Yeah, do it - it's the Lord's will" or "Don't do it! You'll mess up God's plan!" And right now, you all are probably saying, "Ok, James, you're not offering any solution here - I realize the problem!"

So how should we make our decisions? Do we flip open the Bible and hope it opens to a relevant passage? Do we just go along with the flow, knowing that God will work everything out for good? I've been partly influenced by my father because whenever I would want to go out with my friends, whether it be to a movie or to a party, he would ask, "What's the purpose?" I hated that question because MY purpose was to have fun, to enjoy being with friends. But that sure didn't sound very godly.

Getting into Scripture here(because that's where we truly find our answers), I did a simple concordance search and found Romans 12:1-2:
'Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed by this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.'

Hm, interesting passage, isn't it? The phrase that struck me was "do not be conformed by this world". Because that's what we have a problem with as we seek out God's will. Our minds and flesh is of this world, imprinted by the curse, driven to sin against our Almighty God. Yet He saved us and although we are not enchained by sin any longer, our flesh still wages war against us(1 Peter 2:11). Did you see the phrase after the one I just quoted? "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The more we become like Christ, the more our minds and hearts are sanctified, the closer our purposes will be to God.

Yet there are some very big decisions in life, such as getting a job or finding a church or getting married. How will we know what God wants us to do in these decisions? Now, I want to do further study upon these areas, but what I have decided from my brief readings is that as we grow closer to God and as we truly wish for God's purposes to rule our lives, we will make the right decisions. Make the effort and take the time to pray fervently to our Father. Take the time to grow closer to His Living Word. And fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And truly, God will lead us in the paths we should go(Psalm 25:4-5).

I feel like there is so much more to be said, but at this point I'm rather tired and will put the rest of this off until later. But thanks for taking the time to read this; all comments are appreciated!