Ep 1:5 “Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will”.
In this meditation, we would try to
understand what God’s will is and how we can accomplish that in our personal
lives. The verse above simply shows that God’s will is being done when we are
predestined to become His adopted children through Jesus Christ.
The previous verse clearly mentions the
purpose of our predestination. “We should be holy and without blame before Him
in love”.
If we rightly term this, we should understand easily that
the whole purpose of God’s effort, power, the gift of salvation, the gift of
Holy Spirit and every other blessing is that we should be holy and without
blame. We know that this destination is not easy, but this destination is not
impossible either as if everyone among us is predestined to be there, it is a
very much viable target for all of us.
Also, this proves that unless this holiness is achieved, the
purpose of salvation is not fulfilled.
In Love:
All our actions should have a foundation of love and not
anything else. Our love towards God and fellowmen should produce these and not
our plans or ambitions.
Defintion:
A very good definition of will of
God can be found in Romans 12:2 “Good, acceptable and perfect”. If we
are doing God’s will, there will be goodness throughout, there will be no
question in us if our work would be acceptable to God and it will be nothing
short of perfectness. All these should be seen in terms of holiness and not
materials. To understand this properly and to prove this
definition, we are expected to be present opposite to the direction of the
world and allow the Holy Spirit to renew us.
We can read this again in Col
1:9-10 “to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him,
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”.
As in James 4:17, anything
less than this is Sin.
1 Thes 4:3 points directly to what
God’s will is. Our Holiness.
How to do God’s will:
The book of Thessalonians gives us a clearer path to God’s
will.
In 1 Thes 4:3,4,5 onwards, we would see that God’s
will is sexual purity. This is a primary requirement for all of us. This is the
first step of holiness. If we fail here, every other step becomes worthless.
After this instruction, we have our list in 1 Thes 5:12-18:
1.
Honoring God’s men because of their efforts and
fruits.
2.
Peace
3.
Fellowship
4.
Encouragement to other sinners and needy.
5.
Selflessness
6.
Happiness
7.
Prayer
8.
Thanksgiving.
It is important to see happiness to be listed as an
instruction for God’s will and not as a gift. Happiness is our responsibility.
Similarly in the conclusion of Hebrews, we can see Paul
instructing, (Heb 13:21) to perfect us with all good qualities so that God’s
will would be fulfilled in us.
Being able to do God’s will is a promise
In John 6:39 – 40, Jesus
says that God’s will is to raise us up towards our everlasting life if we truly
see Him and believe in Him. We are expected to believe in Him (Jesus) not just
as a God who provides, but a God who is our bread/food that takes us towards
holiness.
1 Thes 5: 23, 24 assures
that God would make us perfect (through Christ). He is faithful and will do
that. Our faith in Jesus Christ as a Savior becomes true when we believe that
we can become perfect and blameless. If we do not believe that, then we do not
believe in Christ.
Faith:
As in many verses (John 3:16, 6:39
etc) all require us just to believe in Jesus to attain everlasting life.
Logically, just believing in Jesus does not make us worthy anywhere. In fact
everybody believes that Jesus is Lord. So, what does this faith require from
us?
1 Peter
4:19 “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of
God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful
Creator.”
Our
faith should be displayed in complete trust towards Jesus so that we would do
good in spite of our suffering. This is the will of God that would raise us.z00x
Foolishness:
Ep 5:17 – Anything less than
understanding the will of God is foolishness. Wisdom = knowing God’s will.
1 Pet 2:15 – Doing God’s will
removes foolishness around us.
Our Longing for His will
Mat 6:10. In the Lord’s prayer,
Jesus has given us a list of priorities which we should ask God for. This is
the third petition we place in the Lord’s feet. Lord, as heaven rejoices and
completely obeys you without doubt, we need that to happen in this earth Lord. We
need every person here to be holy (good, acceptable and perfect). For this,
Lord, we need ourselves to be holy and completely obedient to your good self.
This is important than my food, forgiveness, salvation and submission.
God’s Longing for His will
Romans
8:26,27. For us to survive in spite of our weakness, the Spirit groans in
intercession. We should understand how God struggles for His will to happen.
God
also does this in a strict term. Mark 3:35. We have no relationship with
God if we do not do His will. That is, pursue Holiness.
In
Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:1 we can see that Paul claiming himself to be an
Apostle only by the will of God and not any other qualifications. Every
ministry God establishes is that His will be done.
Benefits
1 John
2:17. The world changes and will cease to exist in its own way. We get
everlasting life only by doing His will. We should understand the relationship
between faith and doing His will clearly. Faith should result in us doing His
will and so we get everlasting life.
Conclusion
In
John 6:26 Jesus answers people seeking Him not to labor for earthly food, but
for heavenly food. We should labor (work hard) for doing God’s will. In
reality, we work hard for our material needs but do not take any suffering to
complete His will. We need to understand
How Jesus did God’s will at the cross by saving us. But, this has to result in
our Holiness.
