The Lifestyle of Following God’s Will

We’ve been talking about following God’s will for a while now, and we’ve covered a lot of different topics. We got the basics down, answered a few common questions, and dug deep into some of the more difficult issues that come up during this process. But after all of this discussion, you may be left wondering, “What’s the point of all of this? What’s the end goal?” Well, that’s our topic for today in the final installment of this series.

We’ve been talking about following God’s will as a process because that’s what it is. It’s a series of steps that starts with recognizing our own in ability to make the right decisions and leads us down a path towards God’s ultimate purpose for us. Like any process, this one changes over time and requires different things from us at different stages.

When we first start the journey of following God’s will, we feel the need to be very intentional and dogmatic. We wake up every morning and say, “God, what are you calling me to do today?” We listen for his answer through the various mediums we’ve discussed previously, and then we go do what he’s telling us to do. And when the big choices arise, we pray and we pray and we pray until we feel God indicating what we should do, and we go do it. This process is great. It’s necessary. It’s exactly what we’re supposed to do at first. That’s why we’ve spent weeks discussing it. But it’s also not the end goal.

Instead, the end goal is to become so in tune with God and his will for our lives that it becomes automatic. Our wills aligns with his will to the point that they’re the same. Our minds have been so shaped and so formed by God that we make godly decisions by default rather than after much deliberation.

Of course, prayer and intentionality will always be necessary because we’re imperfect people. We can’t make all of the right decisions on our own; that’s the premise of this whole endeavor. We’ll always have to rely on God to lead us. But we’re not meant to constantly live in a place of tension between what we want and what God wants. If we’re developing spiritually the way that we’re meant to, it should get easier and more natural to follow God’s will over time as we allow ourselves to become more and more like him.

Following God’s path for our lives should eventually become a lifestyle. At its root, it’s not about what we do; it’s about who we are. And throughout this whole process, God is forming us into the people he wants us to be. Into people after his own heart. Into people who care about and prioritize the things that he cares about and prioritizes. Into people who have internalized his will to a point that it has become our own.

Ultimately, following God’s will isn’t a decision or even a series of decisions. It’s a way of life. It’s an identity. Forming that identity takes time and effort, and holding on to that identity takes even more effort, but if we truly believe that God’s will is the best path for our lives, then forming a lifestyle of following his will intuitively should be our primary goal.

I’m not saying I’ve gotten there 100% myself yet. And I don’t want to put down anyone who’s still going through the process to get to that point. The process is important, and there will always be some element of struggle to it, even after you’ve been committed to this lifestyle for years. But I can tell you from personal experience that doing things God’s way is so, so worth it. Nothing could possibly be better.

Everything I’ve shared with you throughout this series I’ve learned from my own journey. I made a decision long ago that I would do everything within my power to follow God’s will for my life, and it’s made all the difference for me. And I believe it will make all the difference for you, too, if you’re willing to commit to it. It’s not just a decision; it’s an identity. It’s who we’re meant to be. And if you haven’t already, I invite you to start the journey of becoming who God made you to be.

---

Thanks so much for reading my blog! I hope this series on God's will has been as enjoyable for you as it has for me. I've really enjoyed writing it. If you found it to be helpful in your own life, please consider supporting this site through a small monthly pledge. I love writing about things that matter, I want this blog to be all that it can be, and I want you to be a part of it! So please check out the campaign and donate if you feel so inclined.

When You Disagree with God

Following God’s will is a wonderful, rewarding, fulfilling process. It has unlimited benefits. It solves a good deal of our problems for us. It truly is the best way to do life. But sometimes, even in light of all of that, it’s still really, really hard.

Because even after we’ve done everything we’ve talked about in this series, at the end of the day, we’re still human. We’re still imperfect. Our minds and our wills are still affected by the brokenness of the world, which means that there will be times when we find that what we want is in distinct conflict with God’s will. It happens to all of us, and when it does, it’s not fun.

This can happen several different ways. One of the most common ways is regarding doctrine. We have some belief that comes from our upbringing or our culture or our own logic that doesn’t line up with what God reveals about who he is and what he wants through his word. It might even be something that we were taught as a Christian principle that actually goes against the Bible and sound theology! When we truly devote ourselves to studying and trying to understand Christian teaching, we find a lot of shortcomings in our belief system. These stem from the fact that, as we already know, we’re only human.

There are also the day-to-day instances of not wanting to follow God’s will. As we go about our lives, the Holy Spirit is constantly communicating with us, giving us opportunities to show kindness and grace to others. (Some people call this their conscience.) Sometimes these actions require us to get out of our comfort zones or to sacrifice our time and resources in ways we normally wouldn’t. Whether it’s smiling to a stranger on the street, giving a panhandler a dollar, or stopping to have a conversation with someone who’s clearly hurting, God’s will involves a lot of small, daily choices that we wouldn’t make on our own, and sometimes, we push back against them.

But this issue is most apparent and most urgent when it comes to big life decisions like where to live, what career moves to make, and who to surround ourselves with. We like to talk about seeking God’s will on these decisions, but often, we do so without really expecting a response. What we actually want is for God to give his stamp of approval on our idea of how things should go. And sometimes, he does. But other times, God is clearly calling us to follow a plan different from our own. To do something we don’t want to do. Maybe even to do something that seems counterproductive to our plans. What do we do in situations like these?

Fortunately, we have an excellent example of what to do when we find ourselves here. The best example, really. We have Jesus, the perfect human being, the son of God and God himself, as our example to follow when we disagree with God. As Jesus was preparing to be arrested, sentenced to death, and crucified, he prayed this simple prayer: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22.42).

Like us, Jesus was a human being. He had a human will, and in at least this case, his human will was in conflict with God’s divine will for his life. He didn’t want to suffer and die the way he did. Would you? He dreaded it. I’m sure the idea of it made him sick. He was nervous, anxious, maybe even scared of the physical and mental torture that lay ahead of him. But he knew that for some reason, it was a part of God’s plan.

And so, he did it. He chose to put his own feelings aside and put God’s will first. He chose to endure the pain, the suffering, and the embarrassment for the sake of bringing his heavenly father’s purposes to fruition. And because he did, the world was changed forever. I’m so thankful that Jesus was obedient.

So where does that leave us? I think there are a few important things that we can learn from Jesus’ example. First of all, we don’t have to feel bad for having desires that differ from God’s. Because it happens to everyone. It even happened to Jesus. Feelings of guilt and shame for disagreeing with God might be natural, but if we dwell on them, they can hold us back from living out his plan for our lives, so it’s best that we check them at the door. It’s not wrong to disagree with God.

But it is wrong to disobey God. The second thing we learn from Jesus’ example is that in these moments, obedience is always the best path forward. God would never ask us to do something if he didn’t have a good reason for it. While we’re focused on the here and now, he sees the big picture, and he knows what is best for us and for the world. And that’s why we have to make the commitment now that when we do find our desires in conflict with God’s, we’ll choose to follow his will every time.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not about what we want. And that’s the final lesson Jesus teaches us with his prayer. He didn’t just choose to obey. He didn’t begrudgingly follow God’s path, complaining and looking for a way out the entire time. Instead, he chose to want what God wanted. We’re going to dive more deeply into this next week, but that’s the ultimate goal of following God’s will: to fully align our deepest desires with his.

There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with God. It’s an inevitable part of life. It’s even acceptable (and maybe even healthy) to express that disagreement to him. But at the end of the day, we’re called to follow God’s will no matter what because it is always what’s best for us. So when we disagree with God, we recognize how we feel, and then we do what he says anyway. Because he knows what’s best for us, and he’s leading us somewhere wonderful. More on that next week when we finish up this series on following God’s will. I’ll see you then!

When God’s Will Requires Other People

Thus far, we’ve talked about God’s will as a solo endeavor, following God’s will for your own life. And this is really important, but it’s not all there is to it. Because God doesn’t just have a plan for individuals; he has a plan for groups as well. He has a plan for couples. He has a plan for families. He has a plan for churches and clubs and friend groups and all kinds of other units made up of more than one person. Following his will as a unit is important, too. And it comes with its own set of complications.

Let’s face it: Dealing with other people isn’t always easy. We have trouble just getting along sometimes, let alone working together to follow a divine plan that we never fully understand. It’s one thing to give up control to God, but in many cases, we have to trust other people with some control, too. And that’s scary. How are we supposed to work with other people to accomplish the goals that God has for us? It’s not always easy, but it’s certainly possible.

Much of what we’ve already learned about following God’s will as individuals still applies in groups, and it forms a solid foundation for us to start on. The most important thing is that the group be concerned with and committed to following God’s will in the first place. He blesses those who earnestly seek him, so simply making it the group’s goal to follow God’s will is a huge step towards living it out.

A nice thing about groups is that they don’t have to rely too heavily on any one person’s intellect. When we’re trying to follow God’s will on our own, we can feel overwhelmed and even lost because of our lack of information. But in a group, we have others to rely on to help fill in the gaps and clarify what it is that God is saying to us. This is why discernment in a group setting is so important. God can use the expertise, passions, and experiences of multiple people to come together to create something that none of the individuals involved could have done on their own.

And it does sort of take the pressure off, doesn’t it? Making decisions as a group puts a lot less responsibility on any one person. We can rest easy knowing that no matter what decision was made, it was made by multiple people who worked together to come up with what they believe to be the best solution. It’s not all on us. We bear the responsibility, consequences, and rewards together. We aren’t alone, and even though that makes things a little messier, it also makes them a little lighter, too.

Of course, there will be times in any group setting when things don’t go the way we think they should. We feel like God is leading the group in one direction, but everyone else feels a different way. The group may even make a decision that we feel goes against God’s plan. This can be frustrating, even disheartening. What do we do in cases like this?

I think this is where a dynamic understanding of God’s will comes into play. As we learned before, God works with us to bring his intentions into existence. It’s not a one-way path that gets completely destroyed if we take one step out of line. He’s willing to adapt, to collaborate, to accommodate us and our shortcomings even as he moves us towards his ultimate plan for us and for our group.

So what do we do in cases like this? We trust that God is working it all for his greater purpose, even if we don’t understand it. We also acknowledge that we aren’t infallible, that we can make mistakes, that we very well could be wrong in any particular instance. God’s will isn’t always easy to understand, and it’s perfectly possible for two sincere, well-meaning people to come to two very different conclusions about what God’s will is in any given case. And so, we have to trust God and give people the benefit of the doubt, hoping that they’re as sincere in their desire to follow God’s will as we are.

This doesn’t mean we don’t ever try to have a say. God puts us in the groups we’re in for a reason. We each have something to contribute, and if we aren’t, then we’re shortselling ourselves and the groups we’re a part of. When the Holy Spirit convict us, we’re called to move, and often, that means exerting influence in the groups God has placed us in. And as we each seek to follow his will individually as well as in our groups, I believe he’ll bless our efforts.

So that’s my advice: Trust God, believe the best in people, and be diligent to follow God’s will in your personal life. If you’re doing that much, then you can rest easy knowing that he’s going to take care of the rest, and that includes guiding the groups you’re a part of. And with God as your guide, you know you’ll go far. Thanks for reading, friends! I’ll see you next week.

God’s Plans and Ours

We’ve been talking about following God’s will for a little while now, and after reading article after article about giving up control of our lives and letting God call the shots, you might be left thinking that setting any sort of plan or goal in life is a bad thing. I hope that’s not the case. But if it is, I’d like to apologize and take the opportunity to correct that misconception now. Because planning certainly isn’t a bad thing in and of itself.

In fact, planning is good. As we’ve noted before, God gave us our minds for a reason, and we’re meant to use them. The most successful people in life are those who are able to set goals, break those goals down into actionable steps, and then make those steps into reality. Planning is a skill God that gives us to enable us to do great things for him.

But there are a few caveats. As with anything God gives us, we have the ability to use this skill in the wrong way. Our plans can get in the way if we prioritize them over what he wants for us. So how do we make and execute plans without straying from or interfering with God’s will? Here‘s my approach.

Dare to dream.

Our goals and ambitions are often gifts from God, and he gives them to us so that we can pursue them. If you have a dream for your life that you feel is in line with who God made you to be and what the world needs right now, then you should by all means pursue it. Figure out what it will take to make that dream happen, and then start working towards it. You never know, it might just be your calling.

Too often, we spend so much time wondering whether or not a certain goal is God’s will for us that we miss out on the opportunity altogether. This is a shame. We would do better to start something and find that it’s not God’s will than to wait too long and realize that we should have begun long ago.

You know the old saying: It’s better to ask forgiveness than for permission. When we’re earnestly pursuing God’s will, he’s going to understand and forgive us if we accidentally take a wrong turn now and then. Better to try to do good and have to backtrack than to get stuck doing nothing. Sometimes, God uses those seeming failures to help clarify his will for us by eliminating certain options that would otherwise turn into what-ifs.

Don’t assume that just because you have a goal that you need to suppress it. God’s will starts with conviction, and conviction often comes in the form of passions and talents. Don’t be afraid to dream, because God can use those dreams to show you what he has in store for you.

Remember who’s in charge.

At the same time, it’s important to recognize that we aren’t perfect. Our minds are subject to fallenness, and so our plans aren’t always the best for us. We’ve talked about this before, so there’s no need to go too deeply into it. But the basic principle still remains: The only person who should be calling the shots on the direction of our lives is God, and so our plans are always subject to his approval. If we’re simply pursuing our own ambitions without consulting him and following his guidance, we will find ourselves in a bad spot very soon.

So we’re supposed to make plans and try to follow them, all the while recognizing that those plans may not be God’s will and thus might have to be thrown out completely. That sounds hard enough in print. How are we supposed to make that happen in our day-to-day lives? That’s where a couple of really important skills come in.

Practice flexibility and hope.

The first thing you’re going to need to navigate this tension between planning and following God’s will is flexibility. God has this tendency to take all of our expectations and throw them out the window. It’s in his nature; it’s a part of his process of teaching us to trust him. And so we have to hold on to our plans loosely.

We have to be ready to change course as soon he tells us to. If he says, “Move,” when we don’t feel prepared, we still have to move. And if he says, “Wait,” when we think making a move is the best option, we have to be willing to trust him and do what he says, even when our plans say otherwise. (Patience, by the way, is probably the most difficult form of flexibility. Practice it early and often.)

Life with God is a journey. It takes a lot of twists and turns, and the only person with the road map is God. We can’t see the big picture the way he can. So there will be times when he asks us to do things that don’t make a lot of sense, that don’t appear to be in our best interest, that don’t seem to move us towards the goals we’ve set for ourselves. But if we practice flexibility and do what he calls us to even when it messes up our plans, he’s going to bless us and show us a better way than we ever could have imagined.

And that’s where the second skill comes in: hope. Hope basically comes down to believing in the deepest part of your soul that God has the best in mind for us. It’s choosing to have a mindset of trust in the one we’ve decided to follow. He’s our good guide on the path of life, and if we can maintain our faith in him even when the external evidence compels us to lose it, we can find hope in the midst of any life situation, and that hope will sustain us through to the other side of hard times.

And there will be hard times when we choose to follow God’s path. It’s not all happiness and sunshine. It’s a constant struggle to put yourself second and choose to put him and his plans first. There will be moments when you feel stuck and don’t see a way out. Or when you feel impatient because your plan isn’t playing out according to your timeline. Or when you wonder if what you’re doing has any value at all. But it’s in those moments that we need hope the most, and it’s in those moments that God gets an opportunity to show us his ability to use any situation for our good when we’re following him.

One last note on hope: I’ve found that the big breakthroughs in my life have always taken place right after overcoming the temptation to give up hope. It’s happened over and over for me. Whenever I feel a dream, a goal, or a plan slipping away and I choose to trust God and follow his will anyway, that’s when he blesses me with the desires of my heart.

The best example of this that I can think of is my romantic life. It’s so easy to get caught up in the dream of finding the right person and getting married. It can become an obsession, a distraction, and a huge source of anxiety. So a long time ago, I gave that dream over to God and said, “I trust you with this. If it’s a part of your will, great. If not, I’m going to follow you anyway.”

It’s not that I didn’t have a goal and a plan; it’s that I chose to submit them to him and his will. And believe me, there were times when I was tempted to give up hope. When my timeline was completely thrown off, my prospects were nonexistent, and my loneliness threatened to overwhelm me. But I chose to trust that whatever God had in store for me was the best life possible, no matter my marital status. And in the end, he blessed me by leading me to the person I’m meant to be with for life.

As backwards as it may seem, it’s only when we’re willing to trust God with something that he turns around and trusts us with it. It’s only in following his plan for our lives that we have any hope of seeing our own plans through. Because at the end of the day, the best possible plan we could have for our lives is his. And we can live out the perfect plan he has for our lives if we’ll only follow him.

So don’t be afraid to dream and to make plans based on the dreams that God has given you. But in the midst of pursuing those plans, remember to practice flexibility and hope in light of his will. It’s not an easy balance to find, but once you do, you’ll be able to dream and follow God at the same time, and that’s a really wonderful way to do life with him. May it be so for each of us.

God’s Will, Our Choice

Often when we think of God’s will, we imagine a script with every scene, every line, and every movement written out ahead of time. But as we started to examine last week, it’s actually less like a script than we might think. God is relational, and so he invites us into the process of shaping and fulfilling his plans along with him. At any moment, he’s ready and willing for us to go on this journey with him if we’re only willing to join in.

This truth has some pretty profound impacts on how we understand and attempt to follow God’s will. This week, I’d like to talk about one of them. Specifically, I want to discuss our agency in the midst of following God’s will.

It may sound paradoxical to say that we get to make choices when we’re follow God’s plan for our lives. After all, wasn’t the whole point to give up control in the first place? Of course. But like most things, we find that when we give control of our lives over to God, he ends up giving it back to us in ways we never would have imagined.

Have you ever come to a major decision in your life and felt like God wasn’t helping you make it? You pray and pray and pray, but he never gives you an answer. The deadline is coming up, and you still haven’t heard a word from him. You’ve read scripture, weighed the pros and cons, asked your discerning friends for advice, and lost countless hours of sleep, but you still don’t feel like God is giving you a clear indication of which path forward is the one he has for you. Have you ever been there? Most of us have. And if you haven’t, you soon will. It can be terrifying, but it doesn’t have to be.

Here’s an idea: What if God isn’t giving you a clear answer because he doesn’t have one? What if God’s will is big enough, his wisdom profound enough, his love for us deep enough, that we can make the decision ourselves and still be in line with his will? What if either path has the potential to be God’s will as long as we travel that path with him?

I think that God sometimes gives us a choice along the journey with him. Not the choice of whether to follow his will or not, but literally the choice of which path we want to go down with him. If you’re trying to make a decision and it feels like more than one choice could be God’s will for your life, it very well could be the case.

This sort of thing doesn’t happen all the time, and it can only happen within the context of a person faithfully and dutifully following God’s will, but I believe that it does happen. Sometimes, God’s will for our lives can be accomplished more than one way, and so he gives us a choice. The options are different and have real, long-term effects on how our lives turn out, but they’re within the realm of God’s will no matter which one we choose because we’re following him and choosing to take that next step with him.

It’s important to note that even in this situation, we aren’t making the decision completely on our own. We’ve followed God’s guidance to a point where we’re given more than one good option. Only through following him do we even find ourselves positioned to make a choice that is good for us in the long run. God, not us, has set up a situation where we can’t make a wrong decision, and that’s a wonderful place to be. These moments are blessings from and rewards for being faithful followers, and in these moments, we get to experience a new way of journeying through life with him.

So how do we make those choices when they arise? Well, God gave us our minds for a reason. We can use them to make good, informed decisions when we’re focused on doing things his way. And as I’ve said before, our passions and preferences are God-given traits that help us understand his will for us, so we should be willing to listen to them for guidance when his answer is absent or unclear. These, too, are sources that we can use for discerning which way forward is best, as long as we never give in to the temptation of taking back total control of our lives.

It’s strange and mysterious, but it’s true: Only through giving up control of our lives to God can we gain any choice over our life journeys. When we trust him and choose to do things his way, he turns around and trusts to make decisions, too. If you’re asking God for direction and don’t hear his answer, don’t fret. It’s very possible that he’s giving you an opportunity to have some input on the plan, too.

So when that opportunity arises, step out. Use the intellect and passions God has given you to make the choice that’s right for you. And as you take that step, bring God along with you as your partner and guide, thanking him for the opportunity to forge this path of life together.

---

The Patreon campaign is off to a great start! In case you haven't heard, I'm trying to get this blog to become self-sustaining by giving you, the reader, an opportunity to support it financially. If you enjoy reading these articles each week and feel like they add value to your life, I hope you'll check out the campaign and consider donating. It'll keep the blog going, and you'll get cool rewards!