Suggested Reading: Romans 11:33-12:2
In the television series Stargate SG-1, the United States Air Force controlled an alien device called a stargate, which was capable of instantaneously transporting people across the galaxy to any other planet which also had a stargate. The program operating the stargate was top-secret. Several times throughout the course of the series, people were let in on the secret of the stargate but, for reasons of national security, those to whom the secret was revealed always had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, committing to abide by the top-secret status of the operations before anything was revealed to them. If they didn't want to sign the agreement, they received no information about the stargate. Never did they get to know the information and then decide if they wanted to sign the non-disclosure form. It simply didn't work that way.
In many ways, God's will operates like a top-secret government program. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul wrote, "Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge your to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God" (HCSB). Notice that the discerning of God's will comes after offering oneself as a living sacrifice, after refusing to be conformed and having one's mind transformed. In other words, knowing God's will comes after committing to follow it, in much the same way that the revelation of top-secret government knowledge comes only after one has agreed to treat it as highly secret.
Often we struggle to know the will of God. We want to know what God wants from us and for us and we try to figure out God's plan. But often, if we are honest, we try to figure out God's will for us so that we can know if we want to follow it. That, unfortunately, isn't the way it works. Not only does God not tend to reveal His will to us until we have committed to obeying Him, but most of the time we are incapable of even understanding God's will until we have fully committed ourselves to carry it out.
Do you want to know God's will? Are you struggling with a decision and have been begging God to reveal His will? Offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice. Fully commit yourself to a way of thinking that mirrors what you see in Jesus and to complete obedience no matter where God would have you go or what God would have you do. Then you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
In the television series Stargate SG-1, the United States Air Force controlled an alien device called a stargate, which was capable of instantaneously transporting people across the galaxy to any other planet which also had a stargate. The program operating the stargate was top-secret. Several times throughout the course of the series, people were let in on the secret of the stargate but, for reasons of national security, those to whom the secret was revealed always had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, committing to abide by the top-secret status of the operations before anything was revealed to them. If they didn't want to sign the agreement, they received no information about the stargate. Never did they get to know the information and then decide if they wanted to sign the non-disclosure form. It simply didn't work that way.
In many ways, God's will operates like a top-secret government program. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul wrote, "Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge your to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God" (HCSB). Notice that the discerning of God's will comes after offering oneself as a living sacrifice, after refusing to be conformed and having one's mind transformed. In other words, knowing God's will comes after committing to follow it, in much the same way that the revelation of top-secret government knowledge comes only after one has agreed to treat it as highly secret.
Often we struggle to know the will of God. We want to know what God wants from us and for us and we try to figure out God's plan. But often, if we are honest, we try to figure out God's will for us so that we can know if we want to follow it. That, unfortunately, isn't the way it works. Not only does God not tend to reveal His will to us until we have committed to obeying Him, but most of the time we are incapable of even understanding God's will until we have fully committed ourselves to carry it out.
Do you want to know God's will? Are you struggling with a decision and have been begging God to reveal His will? Offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice. Fully commit yourself to a way of thinking that mirrors what you see in Jesus and to complete obedience no matter where God would have you go or what God would have you do. Then you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
