SPIRITUAL
DIARY
Date: 10-29-03
My
Worship Time Focus: Obeying
God’s will
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: James 4:15
1. Message of the verse: “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord
wills, we shall live and also do this or that.’” (NASB)
As we look
at this subject of obeying the will of God we can look at the life of Jesus and
see something that He had to say about it.
In the forth chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus is speaking to the
woman at the well about her need for salvation, and while this is happening His
disciples went to get Him something to eat and were encouraging Him to eat when
He told them "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to
accomplish His work.” I believe that as
a believer we can relate to this when we are doing the will of God and look at
the clock and realize that we have missed lunch because we were so wrapped up
in what we were doing.
The will of God for Jesus Christ
while He was on this earth was to be offered as a sacrifice for the sins of the
world, to fall under the wrath of Almighty God in our place, and yet He said
that His food was to do the will of God.
This tells me that doing the will of God in my life will not always be
an easy thing to do, and yet by doing it, it will bring honor to God as was in
the case of Jesus doing the will of God was.
We will look at other reasons why it is best to do the will of God
latter on.
The
apostle Paul did not believe that the will of God for his life was a burden,
but he knew that it was the key which opened doors and set him free, free to do
what he knew was the very best thing he could be doing in his life.
Dr.
Wiersbe says that the will of God for our lives can be compared to laws that
operate the universe with this exception:
“those laws are general, but the will He has planned for our lives is
specifically designed for us. Not two
lives are planned according to the same pattern.” However there are some things that are common
practice in all believers as far as the will of God for their lives. Please give me some examples of these common
areas. The commandments are areas that
the will of God for our lives, but God does not call each of us to do the very
same work in our lives, so this is where we see individually in the will of God
for each believer.
Do you
think that it is of the up most importance to do the will of God with the right
attitude? God’s will for our lives is
not cold or impersonal, “for the will of God is a living relationship
between god and the believer.
This relationship is not destroyed when the believer disobeys, for the
Father still deals with His child, even if He must chasten.”
Dr.
Wiersbe gives a good illustration of how to understand the will of God. See pg. 136, 137.
- The
Believers relationship with the will of God is a growing experience.
1. We should know the will of God.
As
Paul was speaking of his experience of conversion he said this: “And he said, ‘The God of our
fathers has appointed you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and
to hear an utterance from His mouth.”’ (Acts 22:14)
2.
It is not difficult to discover. John 7:17 “If any man is willing to do His
will, he shall know of the teaching,
whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself.”
Dr. Wiersbe said,
“God does not reveal His will to the curious or the careless, but to those who
are ready and willing to obey Him.
3.
We are to be filled with the knowledge of His will. Col. 1:9-12 “For this reason also, since
the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you
may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding, (the reason why), so that you may walk in a manner
worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good
work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power,
according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and
patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share
in the inheritance of the saints in light.
- God wants
us to understand His will.
Ephesians 5:17: “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of
the Lord is.”
There is a difference
in knowing the will of God and understanding the will of God. In some cases God wants us to know why and
not only what. “No longer do I
call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I
have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have
made known to you.” I believe that
this is taken in the context of knowing and understanding mysteries, and
mysteries when spoken of in the Bible means something that had been hidden
before and is now revealed, and because we are the blood bought children of God
He has revealed the why of some of the things that He is doing. For the things we don’t know why about we
must exercise faith, and remember Deu. 29:29, “The secret things belong to
the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever,
that we may observe all the words of this law.” I recommend memorizing this verse, for in our
walk with the Lord there are times when we do not always know the “what”
and the “why” of all things.
C.
We
must also prove God’s will. Romans 12:2 “And
be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God. “1) to test, examine,
prove, scrutinise (to see whether a thing is genuine or not), as metals 2) to recognize as genuine after examination,
to approve, deem worthy.” Greek
meaning of the word “prove.” If we were
testing metal, as this could be an application of this Greek word, then it
would take some time to do it but when we were finished then we could prove
it. This verse says the we can prove the
will of God in our lives, we can, as the definition of the word prove says “see
whether a thing is genuine or not.”
(Read pg. 138, first full paragraph).
- We must do
God’s will from the heart. Eph. 6:6
“Work hard, but not just to please your masters when
they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your
heart.” Can you think
of an OT character who did not do the will of God from their heart, but
did the will of God? What is the
difference if you do it from your
heart or not? Dr. Wiersbe says that
we can apply 2Cor. 9:7, which speaks of being a cheerful giver to doing
the will of God. Do you agree with
this? (Read lat paragraph on page
138, and all of page 139).
2. Spiritual meaning for my life today: Have a heart that seeks to do the will of
God, have a heart that God can work in, not a hard heart that He will not work
in. Remember that there are times when I
will fail, so don’t be prideful and not admit when I am wrong and confess my
sin to the Lord and then continue to seek to prove what is the will of God for
me and do it from my heart.
The Word of God was very challenging to my heart, it was
also convicting, and refreshment to my soul.
My
Steps of Faith Today: I want to continue to trust the Lord with our investments
with Andrew Lech, and seek to know what the Lord has for me to learn from this
trial. (I learned yesterday that in
order to worship and serve God it takes a sacrifice, and by tithing from the
(extra) money that I invested with Andrew Lech it was not a sacrifice to do so,
but it was a token, or it was giving that money so that God would continue to
bless me with the other 90%. I can’t
help God, but I need to trust Him so that He will show me what that I can prove
that perfect will for my life).
Memory verse for the week:
James 1:5
4.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who
gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
