Did you know that by accepting God's will, which is good, pleasing, and perfect, we can emerge victorious in difficult times? Learn more here with us by reading this article.
Accepting the will of God
Today we will be reflecting on the importance of accepting God's will in our lives. Because every believer can remain in the faith if, and only if, they live their life accepting God's will, which is good, pleasing, and perfect at all times.
Why is it convenient to accept the will of God?
This topic is of great importance for those of us who have believed in Christ and, therefore, decided to follow him. The apostle Paul teaches us very well in the following verse of the letter to the Romans:
Romans 12:2 (RVA-2015): Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
In this verse we have highlighted two relevant compound words used by Paul. Both words coincide in the same suffix, only in different verb tenses.
However, in the first, the suffix is presided over by the preposition “con” and the second by the prefix “trans”. Let's look at each of these terms below:
- form or form: It is to shape, to do something giving it its own shape.
- With: This term is a preposition or link that subordinates something or someone. When the preposition "with" is used in a compound form, it always maintains its nature, whether it precedes a verb or a noun. So that in this case it will always express: union, similarity, or affinity between different things, people, actions or objects.
- Trans: Latin prefix denoting, behind, on the other side of, or through.
Having said that, we can see that Paul tells us that if we have believed in Christ, we must stop being united with the world. Do not conform, Paul tells us, referring to: Stop being like the world.
Rather allow yourselves to transcend, taking the form that is proper to a follower of Christ. Only in this way, Paul concludes in this verse, will we be able to verify, see, believe or trust, how good, pleasant and perfect the will of God is in our lives.
Accepting the will of God even if it is difficult
In the Bible, we can see how, since creation, it has been difficult for humankind to accept or follow God's will. But while it may be difficult at times, it is not impossible, because in the Holy Scriptures we can also see the cases of several men and women who, accepting God's will , said: "Here I am, Lord."
Just as it happened to our ancestors in the scriptures, it can happen to us or be happening to us in our lives as Christians. When we leave the world, passing from death to life, by believing in the message of Salvation in Christ Jesus, we can experience how our life begins to be ordered according to God's original design.
We begin to experience the good will of God in our life, if it is consistent with what the Lord wants us to do. But inevitably at some moments we are presented with a situation in which it will be difficult for us to accept God's will.
However, let us ask the Lord Jesus Christ to help us in moments like this, not to lose focus and keep our eyes always fixed on Him. And while the will of the Lord adjusts to our own desires, it is easy to accept it.
But if the situation arises in which what we desire in our human nature is not in the will of God. It is there when our inner being comes into conflict because it is difficult for it to accept what God has arranged, even knowing that what He has for us is always the best.
God gave us free will
Furthermore, when we reflect on what the will in man represents, we also realize the greatness and wisdom of God. Because when the Lord created man, he did not want him to act automatically, He gave man free will so that he could decide on what is best for him.
Free will is the ability of man to decide in complete freedom what he wants or not to do. Man can then use free will to lead his life in order or not, thus defining his behavior as a human being.
In this lies the wisdom of God, in knowing that when we are accepting his will we do so voluntarily, with understanding and in complete freedom. We agree to do his will, because we want, desire and choose to do it, because of the faith and trust we have in him.
At no time is it an obligation for a believer of the Lord to say: Yes Lord, here I am. But rather it is a voluntary act of surrender, subjection and fear of God. Because the Christian must be convinced in the same way as the psalmist when he said:
Psalms 118:8-9 (ESV): It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man. 9 It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in great men.
Because we must have enough understanding to know that no man on earth can know us better than the one who created us. And that therefore he wants the best for us, God knew us even before we were formed within the womb, thus says the Lord:
Jeremiah 1:5 (PDT): -Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I already knew you. Before you were born, she had already chosen you to be a prophet to the nations.
When man pits his own will against God's
As we said above, God in his infinite love wants man to obey him, not out of obligation. But rather that his obedience be an action of faith and trust in the God and creator of him.
But unfortunately, and as the Bible teaches us, when man was created, the first thing he did was disobey God. The consequence of disobedience was the fall of man and with it, the breaking of a pure being to adopt a sinful nature.
So Adam and Eve confronting their own will with what God had ordered them to do, gave way to sin and with it the fall of man. In conclusion, a human will in disagreement with that of God is the essence of sin.
eye! As believers we must keep this very pending, because this affirmation is tremendous and of great danger for a healthy faith. Our example to follow is Christ, the standard raised by God in love for our salvation from sin.
Jesus example of a life accepting the will of God
The life of Jesus is a great example of living a life submitted to the will of his Father God. For Jesus, the second Adam, without committing sin, came into the world and during his time on earth, lived accepting God's will . As he himself teaches us in the scriptures:
John 6:38 (DHH): For I have not come down from heaven to do my own will, but to do the will of my Father who sent me.
John 5:30 (DHH): – I can do nothing on my own. I judge as the Father commands me, and my judgment is just, for I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me . –
Even if it was hard to accept
When the time approached for Jesus to consummate God's divine plan on the cross, he had a very strong battle inside him. The Lord knew that fulfilling the will of God at that moment represented for Him something very hard and painful in the physical sense.
So Jesus, faced with such a difficult situation, goes to the presence of the Father and prays in Gethsemane, feeling mixed emotions in his soul:
Mark 14:32-35 (PDT): 32 Then they went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray.” 33 He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 He said to them, “ My sorrow is so great that I feel myself dying . Stay here and keep watch.” 35 After going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the agony might pass from him.
While Jesus prayed, his anguish grew in the face of such a difficult situation, but he increased the fervor of his prayer. So much so that he began to sweat drops of blood that fell on the ground:
Luke 22:44 (NIV): But being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
Jesus prayed and first he said to the Father, everything is possible for you, perhaps saying hey Father, if there were another way to carry out your plan, as long as I don't suffer. But, immediately Jesus tells him: Father, let it be done according to your plan and not as I want:
Mark 14:36 (PDT): 36 saying, “ Dear Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want .”
Jesus knew that in the will of God was the salvation of many and that was above his own physical suffering. You are great Lord Jesus! You are great my God!
Accepting God's will even if we don't understand it
On many occasions we are going to find that the Lord asks us to do something, which may be difficult for us to obey and understand. The Lord may ask us to give up something or someone, we may have to face the loss of a family member or someone very close to us, we may also have to go through an illness or someone very dear to us is sick, among other situations.
In short, all these situations can be painful for us, but it is not up to us to understand God's ways to carry out his perfect plan in our lives. We just have to remember the hard test that Jesus had to go through, in order to understand and accept what it is up to us to face as children of God that we also are.
So when we have to face some painful or difficult test, we may kick at first, but in the end we obey and end up accepting the will of God. In this way we can verify how Paul tells us in Romans 12:2: That the will of God is good, pleasing and perfect.
Therefore, God's plan is always the best thing that will happen to us. Perhaps the human will can be more attractive to us, be easier to fulfill or what we most want to do.
But, also in addition and very important eye: The decision carried out by the human will totally excludes God. Human reason can lead us to an easier and more pleasant path than the one that God is offering us and it can be thought that it will give us happiness.
But this is definitely not the case, and we will be able to verify this below. As the Book of Wisdom in Scripture also teaches us:
Proverbs 16:25 (RVC): There are paths that man considers good, but in the end they are paths of death.
When the human will is above the will of God
There is an issue in which we must be aware and that is that the source of the human will is the emotions, more than any logical reasoning of man. So if man is not in communion with God, he is prone to letting himself be carried away by feelings, desires or whims in the face of any decision to be made.
That is why it is important to always remain in communion and intimacy with God, so that we can elucidate what his will is and allow ourselves to be guided by it. Because otherwise we could be making important decisions in our lives, based on emotions or passing circumstances from the finite perspective of the human will.
Let us remember that man will always have a limited vision of the situation he may be going through. However, God sees the big picture and knows what is best for us.
Isaiah 55:9 (NIV): Because my ideas are not like yours, and my way of acting is not like yours. Just as the sky is above the earth, so my ideas and my way of acting are above yours." The Lord affirms it.
This limited vision of man often leads us to choose what in our opinion is the best option, from the perspective of our own emotions. And in the end we realize that what we thought was the best option ends up being the worst.
This is where we must stop and realize the danger of deciding from the human will, not accepting the will of God. Because disobeying God represents making mistakes and with it will come consequences that can affect not only our lives, but also our environment.
Hence the importance of renouncing the human will to obey God, because our Father who loves us will always guide us on the right path. God will always guide us along the path where his purpose for our life will be fulfilled, we just have to trust:
Proverbs 5:21 (KJV-2015): The ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he considers all his paths.
What happens when you are not accepting the will of God?
The Bible teaches us, through various examples, what happens when a person falls into disobedience by refusing to accept God's will . One such example is King David, a man obedient to God and with a heart after His own.
But despite this, there was an occasion when David gave in to his whims and desires, doing his own will. David loved God, knew His commandments, and feared Him, yet he gave in to temptation, setting his eyes on Bathsheba and committing adultery with her.
Since Bathsheba was married, David continues to sin by having her husband, Uriah, killed so that he can marry her, see 2 Samuel 11. God, faced with David's actions in disobedience to his word, admonishes him and makes him confront his sin in the voice of the prophet Nathan.
God in his admonition first reminds David where he had taken it from and where he had placed it. As a sheep herder he anointed him to be the successor of King Saul, from whom he also freed him, when he wanted to kill David.
I put the house of Israel and Judah in your hands, and I would have added more to you, says God to David. He then confronts him by asking: Why have you taken my word for little, doing evil in front of my eyes?:
2 Samuel 12:9-10 (DHH): 9 Why have you despised my word and done what is evil in my sight ? You have murdered Uriah the Hittite, using the Ammonites to kill him, and you have taken his wife. 10 Because you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own, violence will never depart from your house.
Reading this passage we can see what happened to David doing his will: He despised the word of God! This is tremendous and consequently brings God's judgment: violence will never depart from your house!
May the Lord always keep us from rejecting God's will , lest we despise His word. Let us therefore always seek to please God by obeying Him in everything.
Why are we looking down on God by disobeying his word or will?
This is a great truth, if we disobey God, we are despising his word and therefore we are despising him. When we choose to do our will as David did on that occasion, we are not giving him the value and position that God should occupy in our lives.
Even more serious, we are failing to love God as He wants us to love Him: With all our heart, soul, strength, and with all our understanding. As Jesus teaches us when he says:
John 14:15 (NIV): -You will show that you love me, if you keep my commandments-.
Therefore, the worst thing that can happen to us when we don't accept God's will is causing Him great pain through our lack of love for Him. This is worse than any consequence or repercussion of disobedience in our lives.
Let us ask the Lord to strengthen us to prevent our own will from imposing itself on God's. However, the love and mercy of the Lord is so great that, if we have fallen by despising God in this sense, He can always forgive us.
God has given us in his word biblical promises of restoration, where he promises us to get up again, if we repent. So that we can lift up and honor his name with our lives:
Jeremiah 15:19 (NIV): Therefore, this is what the Lord says: “ If you repent, I will restore you so that you may serve me . If you speak truthfully and avoid idle talk, you will be my spokesman. Let them turn to you, but you must not turn to them.”
We invite you to explore other biblical promises waiting for you. All these promises are linked to the love of our God and, therefore, to the faith He desires to cultivate in the human heart. Our God is a God who blesses us through His grace and mercy, and He simply keeps His promises.
What to do to avoid contempt by not accepting the will of God?
In our life we can be tempted at some point to do our will. But what can we do to avoid falling into these temptations and thereby not allow ourselves to underestimate God? Here are some key tips to follow:
- Pray: Something that helps us greatly in our intimacy with God it is prayer. In this way we approach our Lord with sincerity and trust, resting in Him.
- Remember the Lord's victories in our lives: We must remember and recall how God has always taken care of us. This helps us rekindle our faith and trust in Him, because the Lord has never let us down and never will.
- Remember the gifts God has given us in Christ Jesus: Let us remember that, through Christ Jesus, God has given us the identity of sons and daughters. As sons, he has clothed us with faithfulness, holiness, mercy, love, and power.
- Let go of your own worries and give control to the Lord: Let's not strive to find what we think we need; let's let God take control and give us what we truly need, in His time.
- Think about the blessings that God gives us: That is why it is good to know the God's blessings that are waiting for you.
