… you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
James 4:15
The character of a Christian is to exhibit a love for God and one-another, a repentance of sin, separation from the values of worldliness, growth in knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Another identifier is to be that of an increasing desire to do the will of God. From Psalm 40:8, David wrote, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.” In Psalm 143:10 he wrote, “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God.” The greater than David, Jesus said, “whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother (Mark 3:35).” And then the very sobering warning He gives in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Peter, who firsthand heard and observed Jesus, states in I Peter 4:2 that the believer is to “no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
Jesus perfectly carried out the will of God, He said “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” It is at Gethsemane where we most vividly see Him wrestle this through. From Matthew 26:39 we read His prayer, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
In Romans 12:2 Paul begs that we realize the will of God for us. He writes “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” From the Phillips—“Don’t let this world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of maturity.”
In thought of this topic, consider the timing of this statement of Betsie ten Boom, “The center of God’s will is our only safety.” This she stated while in the horror of a Nazi Concentration Camp (I recommend highly the film/book on her and her sister’s lives in The Hiding Place). From Oswald Chambers “…realization begins to dawn [on the Christian] that we are God’s will, and He can do with us what He likes. We wake up to the knowledge that we have the privilege of giving ourselves over to God’s will. It is a question of being yielded to God.”
Charles Spurgeon with his vigor as a preacher of the Word confidently reminds his congregation—“The great maker of the will is alive to carry out his own intentions.” And the intentions of God are always good… As II Peter 3:3 says “[He] is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” His thoughts are for us– “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” And remember from Psalm 119:68– “You are good, and do good.”
Maranatha!