Question:
How do we know what the Lord’s will for us is?
Answer:
“For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Peter 2:11-20). “I will show thee my faith by my works,” we are told (James 2:18).
We are to “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4) “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4) “worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Ephesians 4:1) and “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). We are to “study to show thyself approved unto God” and to “shun profane and vain babblings” (2 Timothy 2:15,16). We are to be “an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). We are to “give attendance” to reading, exhortation, doctrine, our individual gift, and meditation so that we may continue in sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13-16). We are to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us” and “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1) and we are to serve God with the mind (Romans 7:25).
We are not able to understand God’s entire plan for us as we go through life, but we must be prepared to wrestle with Satan (Ephesians 6:11,12) and to prayerfully request and follow God’s direction. We know that our adversary is “transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14,15) and that through his subtleties and deceit we may be distracted from the true path. While the first or second step on the wayward path may not be “clearly wrong,” it is certain that long before we find ourselves away from a walk with the Lord that the broad way will be distinguished from the narrow (correct) path. The individual who has studied “to show himself approved” (2 Timothy 2:15) will be most able to discern the differences between the true and the wayward choices early.
Bad things sometimes happen to good people. Although Joseph had a dream (Genesis 37:5-7), neither he nor his family understood that being sold into bondage by his brethren or being falsely accused by his master’s wife and imprisoned were in his path to fulfill God’s perfect plan. Because of his walk with the Lord, he became a leader in God’s time. Samson and his parents did not understand the significance of Samson’s selection of the daughter of a Philistine, but we are informed that, “It was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines” (Judges 14:4). The apostle Paul was unaware of God’s plan for him when he met the Lord on the way to Damascus, but God says, “He is a chosen vessel unto Me” (Acts 9:15) and he became God’s faithful minister. We must be prepared then to discern His path for us. We are to become skillful in the word of righteousness to grow in Christ to be “of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:13,14). We have been assured that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). We are instructed that we must not intentionally “do evil that good may come” (Romans 3:8) but we are to “abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). We are to “strive against sin” and when we fail in our walk we are told, “Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him:For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth” (Hebrews 12:4-8) since chastening “yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11).
As we strive day by day to perceive His will for us, we should “stand,” prepared with “the whole armour of God,” pray, watch, (Ephesians 6:11-18) wait, and redeem the time “because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).