Keith’s Quill – August 2020

Have you ever considered the importance of making good decisions? Decisions actually determine the direction of our lives and often our success or failure. It is very important when making a decision that it takes into consideration a great number of factors. The one element that I would like to lift up in this article is the will of God. Of course, knowing the will of God is often the dilemma. The problem lies not in that God would hide this from us but that we are not in a position to allow God to disclose it to us. Paul knew that this would be a major issue in every Christian’s success as a follower of Jesus. He, through the Spirit of God, gives us what is necessary to know God’s will and to make the best decisions from that information. Hear the Word of the Lord from Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (NIV)

Do you see the steps we all need to take to know or prove the will of God for our lives? The first is to present ourselves to God as living sacrifices. Knowing God’s will takes commitment from us. In fact it takes total commitment from us. Paul believes and teaches here that this sacrifice of ourselves to God is actually the normal thing to do for those who belong to Christ. Many of us never get beyond step one. We do wish a relationship with God but on our own terms, not His. This will keep us in the dark about His will. The next step, if we are able to get this far, is avoiding the world’s evil influence in our lives. This is all about our thinking and our minds. Once we begin to think like the world the will of God is probably lost to us. Yet most of us are heavily influenced by what is around us. We do allow the world, as some translations put it, to” squeeze us into its mold”. So we have this need to resist thinking like the world. The next step is helpful with this second step. We are to be in the continual process of having our minds renewed so that we can be transformed from what the world would have us believe to what God has revealed to us in His Son and in His Word. If we are not walking with Jesus every day and listening attentively to what God says in the Bible we will fail at this last step. Our human natures will lead us in the wrong direction every time. It is why Jesus big request to all of us is to follow Him. It is in this following that we will find His way and be able to discern the will of God for our own lives. Jesus said he that loses his life shall actually find it. We can make great decisions that will put us in a great place to be who God desires us to be. We can’t do it without following the plan. We need to stop asking what should I do? And start following the one who actually knows what we are to do. I really think this will make a great difference in how we live our lives and how fruitful we will be for the Kingdom of God.

PK