Rather than finding God’s will, let’s find God in every moment, leaning up him. Perhaps then God’s will might continually find us. Perhaps above all it is God’s will that we are faithful disciples of Jesus who are ready and willing and surrendered to him…
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
This is a life verse. Not mine, but it’s the life verse of many people around the world. I couldn’t say if it’s top ten, but it’s Billboard Top 40 verse-worthy. It’s a biggy.
Lucy and I were talking the other day about God’s will, and that always leads me to these verses. How about you? Does applying these verses help you to find and live in the will of God?
There a couple of nuances emerging for me in this proverb. I have a colleague who has been through the health wringer in the last couple of years. We were talking in a devotional time about this straight path promised in the proverb.
He said, “It doesn’t mean it won’t go like this…” and he made the hand sign for a very straight roller coaster up and down path. A straight path can undulate a lot. This might be fun in a rag top. It’s less fun on a pedal bike. It’s no fun if your immune system is compromised and your chemistry is out of balance.
Finding God’s straight path for you is a matter of trusting him, leaning on him, and submitting to him. But notice that we are talking about ‘your’ ways and ‘your’ paths. I think there are times when God’s will for you is very specific because he is going to use you for a very specific calling in that season. His will might position you for that work.
Other times, and I might even think most times, God’s will is much more open. Not in the sense that doing the wrong thing is okay. It’s never God’s will to go against his principles and the teachings of Jesus. But faced with three potential paths, perhaps all three are in his will.
Perhaps the the will of God, over everything else, is for us to come to him. To trust him. To lean upon him. To submit our ways to him. Perhaps above all it is God’s will that we are faithful disciples of Jesus. Period. Imagine the freedom for us to serve God and for him to use us if we were ready no matter where we are.
Rather than finding God’s will, let’s find God in every moment, leaning up him. Perhaps then God’s will might continually find us.
Amen.
Marc Kinna
marckinna 