I'd like to begin with a recap and a correction. So far, God's will for our lives has been pretty spectacular. We have seen that it is God's will for us to glorify Him, for us to be adopted as sons and daughters by him, for us to be Spirit-filled, and for us to be submissive. So far, so good. The correction is this: When I was listing the things that we are to be submissive to, I kind of left out the big one. God. We submit ourselves to God. We don't come to Him and ask Him to show us His will for our lives when we're not obeying what we already know that He wants us to do. Sorry for the oversight. Now, let's bring this bad boy home.
5. God's will for your life is for you to suffer.
Again, let us start with the words of Christ. John 15:18-21 says this: "18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me." 1 Peter 3:17 has this to say about suffering, "For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." One chapter later, Peter wrote this, "19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good." We could fill those blog and the whole blogosphere with accounts of God's people suffering. When Ananias is told to go and heal Paul, God tells Ananias that He is going to show Paul, "how much he is going to suffer for the sake of my name." Jesus asked people to take up their cross and follow him. Crosses were instruments of death and torture. Why is that God's will for you? It seems pretty harsh. If we agree that God is sovereign over all things, and if we agree that God loves us-why do we suffer? I'll be honest. I haven't really suffered in this life. I know people who have gone through immeasurable struggles and sorrows in this life, and I don't want to give some trite explanation. I want to give Biblical encouragement. Remember the first thing that we talked about. God's glory. He wants it. He will have it. As we go into this explanation, do me one favor: remember the cross. Hold onto it. Let's look at the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians. In chapter 6, Paul writes this, " but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything." There is certainly quite the litany of suffering listed there, but I want to draw your eyes to verse 10. Look at that beautiful paradox. "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." How is that possible? It is possible only through the cross. Paul can face all of the dangers and suffering that this world can throw at him because he knows that he has a savior who has died for him. Paul acknowledges that he has been hurt in this world, but Paul also knows that there will come a day when the suffering will be no more, and he will see his King. That is how he can rejoice. He can rejoice because of the cross. THAT is what the world needs to see. The world DOES NOT need to see Christians who are pretending to have it all together. The world does not need to see rich, fat, lazy Christians without a care in the world. They can get that from the world. The world needs to see people who acknowledge that they face pain and struggles in this world at the hands of their very own God. You know what else we get to acknowledge though? We get to acknowledge that that same God came to earth in the form of a man. That same God lived a sinless life. That same God died a sinner's death. That same God was buried in a grave. That same God rose again on the third day. That same God has promised that He is going to return one day and wipe away every tear and put an end to pain and sorrow. Same God. That's how Paul and every believer can be sorrowful and yet rejoice. And when we do that, when we show the world that all of the slings and arrows that they can throw at us can hurt us but cannot stop us from rejoicing, then our God is glorified immensely.
6. God's will for your life is for you to be grateful
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says this, "18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Well now. After submitting and suffering, it appears that we have come back to a part of God's will for us that we can all get behind. Grateful. That seems easy enough. But is it really? Being grateful in a biblical sense may be a bit more difficult than we imagine. "In all circumstances-"that's how we are to be grateful. So when you are submitting to your boss as he is a jerk-give thanks. When your kids are sick, your husband leaves you, you get cancer, or when any of the other seemingly immeasurable sorrows of this world afflict you, give thanks. You know what kills gratitude? Pride. You know what kills pride? Gratitude. Pride and gratitude cannot coexist because of the cross of Christ. If you are daily meditating on the cross of Christ and the miracle of redemption that was done there, you cannot help but feel gratitude of the deepest kind. When you see that you have been forgiven and restored to God by the merits of our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, how can you be proud? On the flip side, when you are proud, how can you be grateful? When all you think about is you, you, YOU, how can you look at the cross? When your pride is running your life, you won't give thanks in all seasons. Good things will become things that you deserve, and bad things will become MISTAKES that God had better fix RIGHT NOW. So, if you would be grateful, put pride to death this very instant. Bow before the throne of grace and acknowledge who you are and repent of your pride. Be filled with the gratitude that comes from seeing who God is, who you are, and what was done on your behalf.
7. God's will for your life is for you to be transformed into the image of His Son.
Let me run that by you one more time: God's will for your life is for you to be transformed into the image of His Son. Let's look at 1 Thessalonians 4:3, which says, "3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification..." This is not only God's will for your life, but this a bedrock promise of our faith. God has put His name and His reputation on Him turning you into the very image of His most beloved thing: His Own Son. Let me show you how this incredible promise wraps up every "will" that has come before it. Philippians 2 paints one of the most incredible pictures of Christ. It says, " Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men.8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Do you see the righteous, Spirit-filled, submissive, suffering, grateful life coming together in one giant, glorious, God-exalting package? Listen to the same story in Jesus own words from John chapter 12. Jesus was speaking of his death when He said, 27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” Jesus knew what was coming his way, but He knew that beyond the cross lay the glory of His Father, and that was his ultimate prize. That is why all the praise of all peoples is due the Son of God, and THAT is who we are being transformed into the image of. Romans 8:28-29 says, "28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[h] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Did you see that? Our being transformed into the image of Christ is a done deal. God has said it. He will do it in a way that He gets all of the glory for doing it, but one day all followers of Christ will be transformed into the image of the Son of God.
I want to say that I feel where a lot of you are coming from when you ask "What is God's will for my life?" I have/am/will be right there with you. In some ways that question exposes something good about us-we desperately want to please our Father. Unfortunately, that very desire exposes something we have either never learned or have forgotten: The best way to please our Father is to desperately want HIM. There is nothing that we can do to make him love us more, and there is nothing we can do to make him love us less. We have to stop being desperate for God to show us what he wants us to do, and we have to start being desperate for God to show us HIM. He is what we want-not a treasure map that leads us to our mythical dream life. Be hungry and desperate for the Lord, and I think that we can trust him to guide us where he wants us to be.
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