Concerning God's Will...

I thought that I would start off my first blog post with a simple little subject that is also happens to be exceedingly relevant to literally everything.  This subject is God’s will.  While I acknowledge both the importance and the value of the specifically theological side of this issue, what I want to address here comes from a more personal perspective.  Specifically, I want to look at, and possibly change the way we look at, the eternal question, “What is God’s will for my life?”

If you’re like me, you have probably spent countless hours, which add up into days or even weeks, trying to discern the will of God.  We have all at one time or another come before God asking for him to reveal his will to us.  This is not a bad thing I might add.  And it makes sense after all, doesn't it?  For someone who is afraid of failing and making mistakes it would be quite reassuring to know without question exactly what God wants you to do, and how he wants you to do it.  Even if his will happened to be ridiculous at least we know that it’s his will, right?  I fully believe that we should seek after God’s will in all things.  However, that being said, I have recently been exposed to an idea that has reshaped my understanding of God’s will in a very exciting and life-inducing way and I want to share it with you.

Imagine with me for a moment that God doesn’t really care about what you do or don’t do.  You may be saying to yourself “That's not true!” and Scripture would agree with you.  Just look at the conclusion of Jesus' sermon on the mount where he speaks about the wise and the foolish builders. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock...and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who build his house on the sand.”(Matt. 7:24&26)  Obviously, God cares very much about the things that we do, especially in response to what He has told us. (duh) But I would argue that for the most part He only cares about the things that we do on a secondary level...

Imagine with me again for a moment that rather than caring so much about your actions, that God predominately cares about your character, or your heart.  Seriously, take a moment or two to think about it.  This is the primary level, and I believe that it is here where God’s will is mainly directed.  I believe that God is far more concerned with shaping a person’s heart than with shaping a person’s life.  Think about it.  If a person has a godly heart, then godly actions will flow out of it as the natural result.  It’s so simple it’s almost stupid, and if you blink you’ll miss it.  When I look at Jesus I see this focus on the heart reflected in him time and time again.  Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, says regarding the Pharisees and the scribes, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;” (Matt. 15:8)  Jesus always had a problem with religious people who did the right things but lacked the right heart.  It’s like trying to run a marathon before you’ve even learned to crawl.  It won’t work and will just end up making a mess of things.  In other words, God cares far more about the state of your heart than the actions of your hands, not because he doesn’t care about your actions, but because the actions of your hands will be a direct result of the state of your heart.  It’s all quite very logical when you think about it.

You may be thinking at this point that, "Wait, I though that this was supposed to be about God's will, not whatever this heart mumbo jumbo is."  Well... I say all of this to lead up to and preface the main idea of this post.  This idea is that idea that God’s will for our lives is to be the kind of people that he can trust to do whatever we want.

I don’t know about you, but when I was first introduced to this idea it rocked my world in the best of ways.  If this whole thing is true, that God’s will is predominately for our hearts, then there are two main implications which I see.

The first implication that comes to my mind is the immense degree of freedom that this gives us. 
    This means that God has given us the freedom to live our lives in a way that glorifies him and he has given us an active role in choosing it!  This means that we don’t have to stress on every little detail wondering whether we are violating God’s will or not.  Now I may be wrong, but if you are truly seeking after the heart of God and begin to somehow go the wrong direction I think that it’s a safe bet to say that he’ll let you know one way or another.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that there are situations where God specifically wants a person to do or not do something, but I believe that the heart is still his focus.

The second implication is the responsibility that is given to us in response to this freedom.
    Found alongside this freedom is the reciprocal responsibility to care for our hearts.  One of many ways we do this is through seeking after God and asking him, “Lord, take my heart and make it more like yours.”  This can be a frightening concept.  If you give your heart to God, what will he do with it? Will he lose it? Keep it? Or worse(and most likely), change it?  In regards to this, I am quite fond of a quote by C.S. Lewis which, when paraphrased reads, "What the Lord takes away with his left hand he returns with his right."  This basically means that when you give something to God, such as your heart, that when he returns it to you it will be different, but in the best of ways.  I have found that if we are seeking after God with our whole heart, even in the midst of our sin, stumbling, and double-mindedness, that by his grace the things which we often invest the most worry in seem to take care of themselves.

So to return our initial question, “What is God’s will for my life?” I would say that God’s will for our lives is to be the kind of people that he can trust to do whatever we want.  I find this idea to both immensely exciting and incredibly life-inducing, and I hope that you have as well.

Thanks for reading. :)
Blessings,
-Josh

Concerning Introduction...

Greetings,
So, I made a blog…  Yea, I didn’t see that one coming either.  In any case, hi there!  My name is Josh and I’m glad that you found your way here for whatever reason.  So let me tell you why I am doing such an absurd thing as making a blog.  I first had the idea for this blog whilst driving back to college at Vanguard University after this past Thanksgiving break.  As I drove I was reflecting over the past couple years, and in particular the past semester, and how much I had learned, relearned, and even unlearned many things.  Many of my thoughts circled around how my ideas and understandings concerning God, church, faith, spirituality, and other such things have radically changed in recent times.  With this in mind I started playing around with the idea of maybe-possibly-perhaps starting a blog-type-thingy.  Concerning this, I didn’t think along the lines of, “Wow, I have learned so much and it is my duty to share this knowledge with those who are ignorant of what I now know.”  What I thought was far more akin to something like, “Wow, I am learning so much and the more that I learn the less that I feel like I know.  I bet that there are plenty of others who are going through similar things and asking the same kind of questions as I am.  I know that I would appreciate an occasional insightful word or two every once in a while and I’m sure that there are others out there who would as well.”  With that in mind I decided that it might be a neat idea to keep a blog of my thoughts “Concerning God…” in the hope and desire that maybe something I say will be of insight to you.  So please... read, enjoy, and do whatever it is that people are supposed to do on a blog. :)
Blessings,
-Josh

Disclaimers: (read these they might be kinda funny)

*This is not an account of my life. If you want that go to Facebook.
*I in no way claim to be always ‘right’. I do however, try to be always honest. Even an honest person can be mislead however, and I encourage you to use both discernment and Scripture to measure the things that I say.
*Grammar is not my friend.
*For whatever reason I always assume positive intent in what people say/do and as a result often foolishly expect the same in return. (Basically, if there is a good way and a bad way to interpret what I write, chose the good way.)
*I am quite aware of the the vast theological depths that naturally accompany many of the topics that will be discussed here, but for both my sake and your own, I'm going to keep things at a more reader-friendly and accessible level.
*Feel free to disagree. Let's just keep it mature shall we?
*Feel free to obsessively refresh the page hoping for new posts, but don’t hold your breath.
*I don’t really have any idea what I am doing so give me some grace!
*And other stuff that I can’t think of right now...