One of the traditions of my family growing up was what happened on Easter Sunday morning. On Easter Sunday morning we’d get up early before church and go searching for easter eggs. Sometimes though, I think we feel the same way about finding the will of God in our lives. Except that the search for the will of God isn’t nearly as fun as searching for easter eggs. It’s frustrating to search for something that sometimes seems impossible to find. Most of us, around the age of high school or Jr. High, we were told we needed to start searching for God’s will in earnest. Because God’s will should determine all these decisions you have to make, like what career path’s you’d take or who we would marry or where we would live. And we’re told that God’s will for us is great, and it’s fulfilling, and it’s satisfying so we gotta find it! We gotta find it, we gotta search for it, we gotta figure it out, and then once we find it we gotta stay in it.
We’ve all heard cliches like, “God has a wonderful plan for your life,” “the safest place to be is in the center of God’s will,” “don’t do your will, do God’s will,” or if someone asks if you’re gonna have something like a job or children in the future and the response is “if God wills.” Have you heard those before? We hear of God’s will for our lives and it sounds so nice like a basket of easter eggs. We believe God has made this specific plan for our lives out of love for us. So we look forward to the day that we discover this plan design especially for us. But then we start trying to find it and it doesn’t seem easy at all. We think overtop God’s will is hidden from us. It seems mysterious or elusive, so we pray, asking God to reveal it to us. And we listen for God, we wait for Him to speak. We w...
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...me a missionary in some remote part of Africa. Or you might have to do something else that you find too difficult or demanding or boring or unpleasant. Or maybe, you’re afraid that you won’t get to live out your dreams. You’re happy living life the way you want to live it and you don’t want God to disrupt that. Completely different problem, but I believe that has the same root as the previous problem. And that root is confusion and frustration about the will of God. That’s the root, you don’t actually understand what God desires of you so the idea scares you.
Whatever side of the fence you’re on I’m gonna give you all some good news today, freeing news. But what I’m about to tell you is so unsettling to the unregenerate soul that you will get MAD. God’s will IS good, it IS perfect, it’s satisfying, and we can KNOW the will of God. BUT it may be very different from
Granted that according to Will, the Southern Presbyterians believe that “what is to be is to be,” this belief on predestination becomes evident when Cretia and Looly, a covey of Presbyterian ladies, visit Will after his survival in the train- trestle incident and begin to express their predestination, saying that God spared Will because it was not his time to die, and it was God’s will that this boy should be alive. This expression makes Will puzzle with a question: is he alive because of God’s will? When he puts forth this question to his Grandpa, Rucker Blakeslee, Rucker replies Will that God gave him a brain that he could use wisely; therefore, he lied down betwixt the tracks to save himself. Eager to know more about predestination and God’s will, Will further asks his Grandpa whether it was God’s will that Bluford Jackson should die of Tetanus. On hearing Will’s question, Rucker explains that Bluford’s carelessness while bursting crackers was not God’s fault in anywa...
One question that tends to strike new Christians is, "what does God want me to do with my life?" Edward Taylor talks about the answer to this question in his poem, titled "Meditation 1.6". Edward Taylor lived from 1642-1729. He was a Puritan poet who made an unusual request. Before he died, he requested that none of his poems be published. It was not until the 1930's that his poems were discovered. In "Meditation 1.6", Taylor compares being a servant of God, to being a golden coin. However, the main, underlying theme of "Meditation 1.6" is God showing the author his faults and using the author to do His bidding.
There is so much mystified confusion surrounding the will of God in today’s society. It is evident in the ways that people use the term that views about it differ widely; there is even contradiction in two things the same person might say. It is because of the recommendation of my pastor and others that I decided to read The Will of God, written by Leslie D. Weatherhead.
...God and our planned routes. It takes us the ability to ignore the threats tempting us to quit to live out a life devoted to God’s Divine Providence.
I grew up in a church congregation that taught of God’s vengeance and not of God’s love. I spent the majority of my pre-teen, teen and adult years in fear of God. In fear of what would happen when I sinned. And of course I did sin. Instead of asking God for forgiveness for what I deemed unforgivable sins, I figured in my own mind, that since I was going to Hell, I might as well continue to sin. Today, I will share with you my life choices, my life circumstances and the plan that God had all along for my life to serve him.
“Because our Father loves his children, he will not leave us to guess about what matters most in life concerning where our attention could bring happiness or our indifference bring sadness.” Not all families are the same anymore. And this to me says perfectly what I need to hear because of my family situation. I am not sure what is going to happen in the next life because of the complicated situation with me family, but I know the Lord has a plan and he will not leave us astray. The Lord has prepared a way.
P. 15 "God has his mysteries which none can fathom. You, perhaps, will be a king. You can do nothing about it. You, on the other hand, will be unlucky, but you can do nothing about that either. Each man finds his way already marked out for him and he can change nothing of it."
Many people are confused when asked about fate and destiny. Through an extensive interview of five young adults, I was able to cover a basic understanding on this topic. Three of the subjects in question were generally unsure of how much free will is available, if choices are true or forced upon them by a higher power. The forth believed that destiny has no effect on life. To counteract this variance basic information was given.
Our intentions are there, but when we strive to survive, our plans and promises seem to disappear. I decided to go back to college recently, after much prayer and seeking God beforehand. As I really did not think I could succeed, because I was again thinking about the age factor. But then one day this past January, I entered a contest for a scholarship. I won a one thousand dollar scholarship towards tuition. I believed this was God ordained, kind of like a sign from God? Maybe?
will is making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances such as fate or divine
I bet that you do not do what I do on Easter. I will tell you what I do and you can then tell me if you do the same thing. First I will go shopping, then get everything ready, and finally we (my household family) will head off. The place that I go is probably not even close to where you go, if you have even gone anywhere. I go to Glasco, Kansas. You guys are probably asking where Glasco Kansas is, because you have never heard of it. Well Glasco, Kansas is north east of Newton, Kansas. It takes about 2 hours to get there, with all of the stops that we make. If we didn’t make any stops then it would take about 1 hour and 40 minutes. It also depends on the traffic but, maybe you do some of the same things so I will tell you what I do and we can
“First, there is the call to be a Christian. Second, for each individual there is a specific call—a defining purpose or mission, a reason for being. Every individual is called of God to respond through service in the world. Third, there is the call that we face each day in response to the multiple demands on our lives—our immediate duties and responsibilities” (Smith, ...
Because you didn’t allow him to work in your life, you wanted to control it or compare it to another person’s life. You set your expectations on a level that was never for you. Who are you more trying to please, the world or God? Pleasing the world will lead to so many unfulfilled expectations and you won’t even realize that you are your own problem. Rather if it’s small or big, some people just have different needs for their lives, than what you need. Some people have different callings on them than you do. God has already said it, so be patience for his direction. Do what your heart desires you to do and do what makes you happy, (as long as it’s
I think that life can throw us some curve balls throughout our days on earth. I mean one day I was healthy as a horse and the next day I was told I had cancer. I was still happy every day that I wake up because that’s another day I get to live. When he says “Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the task which it constantly sets for each individual’, is in my belief that he is saying make something out of ourselves. This means a great deal to me because I want to be the first person to graduate college out of my two brothers.
An interesting detail to note is, the believer’s predestination is part of God’s plan. It is never an accident or by chance when a believer