Have you ever had someone tell you what God's will is for their life? You know things like working in and off and you're just singing in a choir or becoming a pastor? When I hear this sort of talk, I can't help, but wonder how is it they know, for sure, that it's God's will. I mean, did they speak to God directly? Or did he speak to them? Maybe you've heard it said when a friend or a family member dies that it was God's will. Or when someone who is killed in an accident that it was God's will. Why would God's will be so positive, so full of joy, and so inspiring for some, but for others, it's just be unbearable. Could the same God have such massively different plans?
What does God's will look like? Is it simply a plan for our lives or does it go far deeper than that? The Bible speaks of God's will being like an inseparable connection of his desire, purpose, and plan for our lives. In 1st Timothy, Paul says that God's will is for every person to be saved and experience the truth. God's plans, God's desire, God's purpose is for every mother, father, son, and daughter on the planet to be saved by having an intimate experience with him and his truth.
The Bible is full of stories of people who struggle to understand what God's will was for their life. These were people just like you and I, who found it hard to make sense of God's plan. Jonah was one of them.
The story starts out with God coming to Jonah and asks him to go and tell the people of Nineveh(?) to repent. See: God wanted every person in Nineveh to enter into an experience with him and his truth. The problem was that Nineveh was the ancient world's sin city and not a very welcoming place for a Hebrew prophet. You can kinda understand why Jonah didn't want to go. And so, in response to the call of God, Jonah ran. He ran from the presence of God and God's plan to save the people of Nineveh.
And let's be honest, sometimes it's hard to know what God's will is. In Roman's 3, Paul says that we don't even fully understand what God is like. And then in 2nd Corinthian, it says that our minds are so messed up and blinded by Satan that we cannot see God clearly unless he intervenes. If we don't even understand what God is like, how are we supposed to know what God's plan is for our life?
Maybe God's like an architect. You see, an architect will carefully consider every detail of the project. The architect imagines the finished project and sets about making it happen. He's the one who sees the plan to completion. God has a plan for every person and that is connected to his overall plan to see everyone come to understand who he really is. The thing is, when the holy spirit reveals what God's plan is for our lives, often the enormity of it scares us. It's kind of like looking at a plan for a huge construction and saying that will never be finished.
We need to learn to live our lives on what God thinks and not on what we think. He says he's the author and finisher of our faith. He says he's able to do more than we could hope or imagine. He says he will finish the good work he has begun. God, the chief architect, promises to design and finish the plan. Jonah ran from the plan that God had for him. In running from this plan, he also ran from the people of Nineveh who desperately needed to hear the Gospel. You see, when we don't follow God's plan, it impacts other people. Jonah was so focused on himself, he could not see the big picture. Really Nineveh represented Jonah's own life: messed up, selfish, proud, and lacking of vibrant experience with truth. God's plan was to rescue Jonah as well as the people of Nineveh.
Like Jonah, we often try to come up with our own plans in life. A proverb says that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end(s) are the ways of death. Whether we're doing God's will in our own strength
or our will in God's name, we are still getting in the way of the architect and not letting him do his own job. God's plan for Jonah was that he would experience truth. God wanted Jonah to realize of his serious need to trust the architect. What would happen if we started to trust the architect? We're so limited with our human understanding. We simply cannot see the big picture. God's the only one who can. He knows the beginning from the end and he works tirelessly to see his plan completed.
The reality is that many Christians today have got no idea what God's will is for them. We fool ourselves when we say God just wants me to look after the church gardens or collect the offering or God just wants me to sing in the choir once a week or run a child care service. God and his plans are so much bigger than that.
The first step in living for God has to come from having a deep and personal experience with Jesus Christ. That means talking to Jesus, reading about Jesus, and sharing Jesus. God's ultimate plan is for the message of Jesus to be taken to the world. No matter how many of your own plans in life have failed, God still plans for you. He goes back to the drawing board every time you walk away from his plan. And whilst you may not know what tomorrow holds, you can be sure that God has an incredible plan for your life.
Thank you Eternica for you help!!!!