Are you doing God’s will?
‘Whoever does the will of God lives forever.’ 1 John 2:17 NIV
The thing that should matter to you most is doing God’s will. And here is why: God’s will is the only thing that will last forever. God has a plan for your life, and that plan constitutes His will for you. So how can you know God’s will? Try to imagine these two things:
(1) A Polaroid picture. Remember those? They’re back again! You take the shot, and out pops a picture. At first, it isn’t clear, so you have to wait. But as you continue to wait, the picture becomes clearer. That’s like God’s will. ‘The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight; keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.’ (Proverbs 4:18-22 NIV)
(2) A scroll. If God showed you His entire will for your life at one time—you would be overwhelmed. But like unravelling an old-fashioned scroll, He reveals His will to you little by little as you become mature and able to handle it. And since it’s God’s will, you need His power to fulfil it. You also need the assurance of His presence with you. And He promises this in His Word: ‘Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 1:6 NIV)
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright © 2022
Question is, what is God's will?
1 Peter 2:15
Verse Concepts
For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
1Pe 2:13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
1Pe 2:14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
1Pe 2:15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
1Pe 2:16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
God's will is that His people should live so honorably and unblamably that the unconverted will have no legitimate basis for accusation. By lives of exemplary conduct, Christians can and should expose the ignorance of the charges made against Christianity by foolish men.
Christians and the Christian faith are ceaselessly bombarded by the ignorance of foolish men. It may be in the university classroom; it may be in the science laboratory; it may be in the pulpit. Peter says that one of the best answers to such blasting is a holy life.
1 Peter 3:17
1Pe 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
1Pe 3:16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
1Pe 3:17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.
If a Christian must suffer, which might sometimes be God's will for him, it should be for doing good. But he should not bring suffering on himself for his own misdeeds; there is no virtue in that.
Philippians 2:13
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Now Paul reminds them that it is possible for them to work out their salvation because it is God who works in them both to will and to do for His good pleasure. This means that it is God who puts within us the wish or desire to do His will in the first place. Then He also works in us the power to carry out the desire.
Here again we have the wonderful merging of the divine and human. In one sense, we are called on to work out our salvation. In another sense, it is only God who can enable us to do it. We must do our part, and God will do His. (However, this does not apply to the forgiveness of sins, or to the new birth. Redemption is wholly the work of God. We simply believe and enter in.)
As we do His good pleasure, we should do it without grumbling or questioning: “Not somehow but triumphantly.” Complaining and disputing usually lead to graver offenses.
Mark 3:35
For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
Mary, the mother of Jesus, came with His brothers to talk with Him. The crowd prevented their getting to Him, so they sent word that they were waiting outside for Him. When the messenger told Him that His mother and His brothers wanted Him, He looked around and announced that His mother and brother was whoever does the will of God.
Several lessons emerge from this for us:
1. First of all, the words of the Lord Jesus were a rebuke to mariolatry (the worship of Mary). He did not dishonor her as His natural mother, but He did say that spiritual relationships take precedence over natural ones. It was more to Mary's credit to do the will of God than to be His mother.
2. Secondly, it disproves the dogma that Mary was a perpetual virgin. Jesus had brothers. He was Mary's firstborn, but other sons and daughters were born to her afterward (see Mat_13:55; Mar_6:3; Joh_2:12; Joh_7:3, Joh_7:5, Joh_7:10; Act_1:14; 1Co_9:5; Gal_1:19 also Psa_69:8).
3. Jesus put God's interests above natural ties. To His followers, He still says today: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luk_14:26).
4. The passage reminds us that believers are bound by stronger cords to fellow-Christians than they are to blood-relations when those relatives are unsaved.
5. Finally, it emphasizes the importance Jesus places on doing the will of God. Do I meet the standard? Am I His mother or brother?
1 Thessalonians 4:3
For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
The will of God for His people is their sanctification. To sanctify means to set apart for divine use. In one sense, all believers have been set apart from the world to the service of the Lord; this is known as positional sanctification, and it is perfect and complete (1Co_1:2; Heb_10:10). However, in another sense, believers should sanctify themselves, that is, they should separate themselves from all forms of sin; this is known as practical or progressive sanctification. It is a process that will continue until the believer's death or the Lord's return. It is this latter use of the word that is found in verse 3. (See the discussion of sanctification under 1Th_5:23 below.)
The specific sin against which Paul warns is unlawful sexual activity, and in this section is probably the same as adultery. It is one of the principal sins of the heathen world. The admonition, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, is needed today as much as in the first century of the church.
Proverbs 19:21
Many plans are in a man’s heart,
But the counsel of the Lord will stand.
Psalm 40:8
I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
John 7:17
If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
John 11:22
Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Romans 15:32
so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.
James 4:15
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
Ephesians 6:8
knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.
Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 143:10
Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
Ecclesiastes 12:14
For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
Proverbs 3:2
For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.
Colossians 1:9
For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
1 Corinthians 6:14
Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
James 4:13
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”
Psalm 46:5
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
Deuteronomy 30:3
then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.
Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.
John 4:34
Jesus *said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
Hebrews 10:36
For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
1 Peter 4:2
so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
Psalm 69:35
For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah,
That they may dwell there and possess it.
1 John 5:14
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
Psalm 108:13
Through God we will do valiantly,
And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.
Isaiah 55:8
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
Romans 2:6
who will render to each person according to his deeds:
Ecclesiastes 8:17
and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover.
Hebrews 6:3
And this we will do, if God permits.
Deuteronomy 30:9
Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers;
Hebrews 13:21
equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
John 6:40
For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
Psalm 3:2
Many are saying of my soul,
“There is no deliverance for him in God.” Selah.
1 Corinthians 3:17
If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
Ephesians 1:17
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
John 8:47
He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
Zechariah 9:16
And the Lord their God will save them in that day
As the flock of His people;
For they are as the stones of a crown,
Sparkling in His land.
Ephesians 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus:
Matthew 10:20
For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
Ephesians 5:17
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Job 35:13
“Surely God will not listen to an empty cry,
Nor will the Almighty regard it.
Psalm 59:10
My God in His lovingkindness will meet me;
God will let me look triumphantly upon my foes.
Psalm 64:7
But God will shoot at them with an arrow;
Suddenly they will be wounded.
1 John 2:17
The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
Deuteronomy 11:12
a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.
Topics on God's Will
Doing God's Will
John 7:17
If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
God's Will Be Done
Acts 21:14
And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!”
Knowing God's Will
Romans 12:2
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Prayer, And God's Will
1 John 5:14
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
Sanctification As God's Will
1 Thessalonians 4:3
For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
Submission To God's Will
Psalm 40:8
I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.”
What God's Will Is
Revelation 4:11
“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
Related Topics
Being Grateful
Being Thankful For Blessings
Doing God's Will
Doing Your Best
God's Plan
God's Plan For Us
God, Purpose Of
Gods Plan
Guidance, Need For God's
Knowing God
Knowing God's Will
Life Purpose
Prayer, And God's Will
Sexual Purity
Submission To God's Will
The Future
Thoughts
What God's Will Is
Working For God
Prospering
Will
Source:
57 Bible verses about God's Will
Lengthy, but a worthwhile study.
Shalom
Johann
