What Should I Do? (Part 2)

James 4:15

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So what is God’s will? The book of James says instead, instead of just making all of our own plans as if God doesn’t exist.

Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. (James 4:15)

So when we start with that question of what is God’s will? The first place I always want you to go is, is to remember that God’s will, the will, the very desire, the heart of God our Savior, is that all people are saved by coming to a knowledge of the truth. God’s will for you is that you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as you grow in that, it happens by looking at his revealed Word and by studying His Word. So what is God’s will for us? It doesn’t have to be this mystical thing, or a feeling or a sign that we’re looking for. In fact, it really shouldn’t be. If you want to know what God’s will is, you look where he’s expressed his will in his word. And a lot of times that answers the question for us.

For our questions, we can just start by saying, well, does God speak about this? You can start with things like the Ten Commandments. If you’re wondering, what does God have to say? What’s God’s will for me in my marriage? If it’s going, oh, it’s just it’s really hard and there’s a lot of stress going on here. Well, God’s will isn’t for you to go and get a divorce. God’s will is for you to work through this and to get support and to have forgiveness and reconciliation. He says that in his word. So we don’t get to say, well, it’s God’s will for me to be happy, so I’m going to go do this or that. A lot of our questions can be answered by looking at the Ten Commandments and looking at what God says.

And if God speaks about a topic, then we can know what God’s will is. It’s pretty simple, but sometimes it can be hard for us to swallow if it’s not what our sinful nature wants to do.

What is God’s will in all of those situations where he doesn’t speak about this? Well, here’s what we can do. You can start by looking at the biblical principles. What does God say about this in general? You can hold those out. You can weigh them, you can talk with Christian friends, and then you can figure out, are my options according to God’s will? And if they are, if your choices, maybe it’s a new job and neither a job option is a sinful option. They’re both according to God’s will. You don’t have to know one specific thing that God in his all knowing mind has decided in advance for you to do. You can just say, God is going to bless me with either of these decisions. And I and I pray to him, and I ask him to bless me. And then using the judgment and the wisdom that he gives you, go and step forward boldly and make a good decision.

And here’s the thing, as we make decisions, as we seek to follow God’s will, we have a Savior who has done this perfectly in our place. Jesus came, and every moment of his life he was seeking to follow His Father’s will. His will as true God was right in line with God the Father’s will. And he never made a decision that was against the revealed will of God. The Bible tells us he never sinned, even though Satan was tempting him to do that and he he followed God’s will even when it was the hardest option.

Sometimes we think, Oh God is opening a door for me, and we think God’s will must be the easiest option out there. Well, that’s not even how it worked with Jesus. It was not the easiest option for the Son of God to carry all of our sins, including our sins of trying to make, our will, God’s will. He takes all of them to the cross, submits to the will of the father so that he can live and die in your place, and that your sins are forgiven. All of these options of joyful freedom are open to you as we’re empowered to make decisions according to God’s will. God bless you as you do that.