What’s God’s Will for You? (Part 2) By Babatunde Olugboji
This week, we will continue our discussion on the perfect will of God, which is something that many believers struggle with. Is what I am doing in alignment with God’s will for me? How can I identify God’s will that everyone keeps talking about? Do I do A, or do I engage in B and when? These are the questions believers seek answers to.
Proverbs 16:1–9 describes the heart’s intention to make plans and the Lord’s sovereignty over that planning. It is a good thing to plan but the Lord has a purpose for everything he created (1 Timothy 4:4). Seeking the Lord and reverently committing one’s ways to God is the wisest and most effective way to make plans.
An individual may plan out every aspect of his or her life, yet God is the one who ultimately decides the outcome. Paul (Romans 9:20–21) and James (James 4:13–15) reinforce this idea. Nothing we intend can override God’s sovereign will (Psalm 33:10; Job 42:2). That does not mean planning is wrong, but what we plan must be prepared in a spirit of humility and obedience, and subject to God’s sovereignty. Keeping that spirit, we need not fear missing God’s perfect will.
At the same time, there is a sense in which someone can miss God’s perfect will; that is, he or she can fail to benefit from the best God has to offer. When we make an ungodly, unwise, or sinful decision, we must deal with the consequences. Making a decision apart from considering what God wants can lead to missing God’s perfect will in a situation.
King Jehoash seems to have missed God’s best for him: because of his incomplete obedience, he was only able to defeat the enemy three times instead of five or six (2 Kings 13:18–19). Moses, the deliverer of the Israelites from captivity in Egypt seems to have missed God’s “perfect will” when he struck the rock and failed to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 20:10–13).
Godly King Jehoshaphat who God gave an usual victory when the Moabites, Ammonites and Meunites waged war against Judah (2 Chronicles 20) seemingly missed God’s perfect will when he allied himself with wicked King Ahaziah to make ships to go to Tarshish, and the Lord destroyed the fleet (2 Chronicles 20:35–37).
These instances demonstrate that our sinful behaviors can indeed lead us to miss out on God’s perfect will, or His best intentions for us. Concurrently, the Bible states that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Even amidst “the sufferings of the present time” (Romans 8:18), God is actively working in all circumstances to sanctify us for our benefit and His glory (1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Peter 1:2–4). This remains true even when our difficulties arise as a result of our sinful and foolish choices.
What do we do when we miss God’s perfect will? We must do the next right thing. Proverbs 24:16 says, “For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.”
To be continued
Have a great week.
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