QotW: Listening to what God wants
Thanks for all of your good questions on Sunday during the Q&A. I always like hearing about what you’re thinking and wrestling through, and it helps me to speak more relevantly into your life. Since we had so many questions that I didn’t have a chance to answer, and there were a few that I couldn’t effectively address in a 2-minute blurb, I thought we’d re-start Question of the Week on the website. Each week, on Wednesday, I’ll take a question that you or one your friends has asked, and do my best to try and answer it. You can submit questions by e-mailing them to me (dsoutham@parksidechurch.com) or just replying to this post. Also, feel free to comment on my answers, adding your thoughts or asking any follow-up questions that you might have. I think it’ll be a really cool way for us to think through the issues of faith together.
Anyways, without further ado, here is the question of the week: How can a Christian listen to what God wants?
Great question. I typically run into this question in my own life when I am trying to make some kind of decision, especially important ones. As a Christian, I want to do what God wants me to do, and when I come to important questions, I typically ask “God, what is your will for me in this?” Do you want me to go to this college or that one, do you want me to work at this place or that one, do you want me to have Cheerios for breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch? (just kidding, although sometimes my level or questioning gets a little bit ridiculous…)
So, how do we know what God wants? A couple of thoughts:
- God can’t contradict Himself. We know that it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18) and that the words of the Bible are His very words (2 Timothy 3:16). What that means is that if you ever think that God is telling you to do something that is in opposition to what He’s said in the Bible, He isn’t telling you to do that. In fact, He’ll never tell you to do something that is in opposition to the Bible. So the challenge here is to know our Bibles, because in so doing, we’ll learn about what God has already said on certain topics. And we’ll be able to better discern some of those voices in our heads, ruling out some of them as not from God, because they oppose what He’s said in Scripture…
- God has already spoken on what He wants. Sometimes, when I’m struggling with the “What’s God’s will?” question, I have to remind myself of what God has already said he wants from us in the Bible. For example, check out 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6, or 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, where Paul writes about what God’s will is. In the second example, he says “God’s will” for us is to be joyful always, pray continually, and to give thanks in all circumstances. At first, if you’re like me, you’re tempted to think, “Come on, Paul, that’s great and all, but I want an answer to this specific question I’m facing!” But his words focus on something a little bit different. We’re concerned about where we should go to college, who we should date, and where we should work, but Paul is most concerned with the type of people we are in all of those situations. It seems God wants people, no matter where they go to college, who they date, or where they work, to be people who are marked by joy, prayer, and thanksgiving. So, the next time you find yourself dominated by the “What’s God’s will?” question, pause, ask for God’s help in the decision you are facing, and then look up one of these passages, and really strive for what He’s already said His will for you is…
- God is sovereign. My guess is that while you’ve found the last two items somewhat helpful, you still think that I am dodging the real question. When I’m facing a tough decision between two “good” things (neither of which is against Scripture), how do I make it? If you’re like me, you want God to drop a note out of the sky that tells you what to do, or wish the Bible contained verses that started with, “And Dan shalt go to college at…” But it doesn’t happen that way. It’s not that easy. So how are we supposed to make decisions then? Well, I think the key to making decisions is to understand the reason we get so stressed out by them. I think we get stressed out by them because we’re afraid that somehow we’re going to miss out on God’s best for us, that if we make the wrong decision between choice A and choice B, our lives will be ruined and we’ll never recover. But this simply isn’t true. We have to remember the truth of the Bible, that God is sovereign over everything, and that He works all things (even our decisions!) for the good of those who love Him, using everything to make his followers more like Jesus (Romans 8:28-30). And with that in mind, we can’t ruin God’s plan. It’s impossible! If we choose A, He’ll use it for the good of those who love Him. If we choose B, He’ll use it for the good of those who love Him. So what are we to do? Pray. Think. Talk to those who are older and wiser than you. And then make a decision, not trusting your own ability to discern the “right” way, but trusting God that will ultimately turn it into good no matter what.
Have feedback? Other thoughts or questions? Post them here!
