How has God been at work in your life? We spend time reading Scripture, praying, rendering acts of worship, but we tend to treat these discrete passages of time as separate events. There is a tendency to say that God is in each of these moments and then we work ourselves up emotionally, and these emotions become our expression of “experiencing God.” Then someone comes along and asks you a question about the evidence that God is working in your life and you can’t answer directly. Our response becomes some mish-mash of thoughts disconnected from the realities of everyday life.
For the believer, it is imperative that we seek God’s will for our lives. I remember the first time I heard the phrase “God’s will” it was almost as if I sensed a type of relief. I got off the hook, so to speak, and began to look for this thing called “God’s will” in my life. This is the connection that believers are missing. We forget that our omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent Heavenly Father is here and we lose sight of what might be God’s will for our lives by replacing His life in us with our own perception of how our activities may fit into His will.
I hesitate to offer a prescription to follow for discovering God’s will, but let me suggest that it perhaps begins with a daily search for how God is at work in your life and the lives of those around you. Begin by asking questions like, “What is God’s will for my life, my work, my family, my church?” Then search Scripture for the answers. Read how God has worked in others’ lives and then ask whether there are any similarities in the way you have been experiencing life. Apply what you read in the Bible and ask God to show you how He is at work in your life. The Holy Spirit wants to reveal this to you.
As we begin this search, we will soon find that our concern shifts from ourselves to our Lord. If we are too selfish, we might not perceive how God is at work in our lives. The things of our lives flow out of us, rather than flowing out of God’s will for us. This is the true test of the search for God’s will. If our tendency becomes too self-focused, we must stop and put the question to the Lord, “What is Your will for me?”
Ephesians 5:17 says, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Get your attention on Him. You are His child, so act like a child and look to the Father for direction, guidance, and every matter of life. As I get older, I realize how much of my own earthly father is in me. But I also see another force at work, the presence of my Heavenly Father and His guiding hand to move me in a direction that He chooses. Let’s take that first step and begin searching for how God is at work in our lives.
Bible Trainer 