SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2019 9:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Lord’s Purposes”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians 5:17
Message of the
verse: “So then do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Let us begin by talking about the unwise believer. He will act foolishly in a manner where he
tries to function apart from what God’s will is for him, and this will
inevitably make him weak, frustrated, and also ineffective, in both his
personal life and also in his work for the Lord. There is only one cure for such foolishness
and that is to find and to follow what the will of God is for his life.
Now where do we find God’s basic will? Well the Lord has given it to us in His Word,
and it is here we find His perfect sufficient guidelines for knowing and doing
what it is that will please the Lord.
MacArthur states “But the ‘will’ of which Paul seems to be speaking here
is the Lord’s specific leading of individual believers. Although His plans and directionss for each
believer are not found in Scripture, the general principles for understanding
them are there. God does not promise to
show us His will through visions, strange coincidences, or miracles. Nor does He play a divine guessing game with
us, seeing if we can somehow stumble onto His will like a small child finds an
egg at an Easter egg hunt. God’s deepest
desire for all of His children is that they know and obey His will, and He
gives us every possible help both to know and to obey it.”
It should not come as
a surprise that God’s will for our lives is first of all to belong to Him
through Jesus Christ. That is first and
primary will for every person is that he be saved and thus brought into the
family and the kingdom of God as seen in 1 Timothy 2:3-4: “3 This is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come
to the knowledge of the truth.” Next
God’s will is that we all be Spirit-filled.
If we look at the next verse in Ephesians we read “18 And do not get
drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,”
1 Thessalonians 4:3 tells us more
about being in God’s will: “3 For this is
the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from
sexual immorality;” now I am not trying to speak lightly about the last part of
this verse but what I am looking at here is the sanctification of the believer
being in the will of God. Next we will
enjoy His will through proper submission to other men as seen in 1 Peter
2:13-15 “13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution,
whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him
for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For
such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of
foolish men.” Hebrews 13:17 gives us the
next way to be in the will of God “17 Obey your leaders and submit to them,
for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them
do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”
Suffering may be in the will of God
and we know this by looking at all of those people who are actually losing
their lives for the cause of Christ each day in places like Nigeria, the
Central African Republic, China, and
also North Korea among some of the places in the world. “20
For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you
endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it
you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (1 Peter 2:20). MacArthur writes “God’s will culminate in
believers’ giving thanks no matter what.
‘In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus’ (1 Thess. 5:18).”
He goes on to write “When a person
is saved, sanctified, submissive, suffering and thankful he is already in God’s
will. ‘Delight yourself in the Lord; and
He will give you the desires of your heart’ (Ps. 37:4), David tells us. In other words, when we are what God wants us
to be, He is in control and our will is merged with His will, and He therefore
gives us the desires He has planted in our hearts.” As I have stated in many SD’s about God, in
eternity past giving us works for us to do for the cause of Christ, this seems
to go along with this quote from John MacArthur.
When we look back at Ephesians
5:15-17 we will find that our Lord Jesus Christ is our supreme example for
fulfilling the commands of these verses, as Christ always functioned according
to the divine principles establish by His Father as seen in John 5:19
“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to
you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees
the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does
in like manner.” Let us also look at
John 5:30 “30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and
My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who
sent Me.” Now as we look in the gospels
we find that Jesus knew that once He began His ministry that it would be rather
short as He stated on different occasions, and yet Christ made the most of His
time while on earth. I have mentioned in
earlier SD’s that from the very moment we first hear His voice in the Gospel of
Luke where he stated in 2:49 (KJV) “49
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I
must be about my Father’s business?” And
when we get to the end of His life on earth Jesus stated “It is finished.” Doing His Father’s business was finished, as
He accomplished what it was that the Father sent Him to do. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent
Me, and to accomplish His word” (John 4:34).
Peter writes “Therefore, since
Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose,
because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the
rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will
of God” (1 Peter 4:12).
John MacArthur concludes “The words
of David sum up the proper reaction to this teaching: ‘I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto
thee, O Lord, will I sing. I will behave
myself wisely in a perfect way’ (Ps. 101:1-2 KJV).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Ever
since I first became a believer I have been looking at the subject of being in
the will of the Lord. I have been to
different places where this is what they talk about and in most cases we are
told some similar things that we have looked at as far as being in the will of
the Lord. This is, of course one of the
most important things that I as a believer can learn, as it is part of the
sanctification process that I am to go through.
One thing that I can say is that I will never arrive to be perfectly
doing the things that the Lord has for me to do, and what I mean is that I need
to continue to grow as Peter writes, which is the last thing that Peter wrote
in his last letter before he would be crucified upside down for the cause of
Christ, and when a person is about to die, and he knows it then what he has to
say should be listened to. “18 but grow
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be
the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” I am assured that by following this verse
that I will be in the will of the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Humility
is certainly in the will of the Lord, something He is teaching me, and will
continue to teach me.
The
Scripture verses that go with yesterday’s quotation from D. L. Moody is from
Proverbs 3:3-4 “Don’t lose your grip on love and loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their
initials on your heart. Earn a reputation
for living well in God’s eyes and the eyes of people.”
6/26/2019
10:31 AM
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