God’s Will, Part 2

Warnings about a Personal Will of God

In the first post, we stated that God’s will on the general level sets the stage for the daily life of serving the Lord. Let's be more accurate about this: a walk with God in general obedience IS THE STAGE for all of life. All of life is to be lived for the Lord, 24/7. There's no secondary stage for obedience.

But somehow we assume that the really big decisions are the moral ones, and the little decisions are the non-moral ones. This morning I had Cheerios; yesterday at breakfast, I ate a three-egg omlet. These little decisions are the little ones; there's not much with which to be concerned, morally, we commonly think. No. All of life is for His glory. All of life is moral. We are involved in moral decision making all the time. On the matter of making moral choices regarding breakfast, there are health issues, convenience for a hurried morning and helpful service to others, to name three.

Back to the main point thus far. Doesn’t it properly follow that if one does not obey the plain teachings of the Bible, then we’re playing a game about pursuing faithful, God-honoring decision making in what we call the larger matters of life, things like marriage, college, occupations, missionary calling, house-buying, etc.?

How are we foolish with this game? It’s in our view of God. If we think that there’s a special, secret will for each of us, then our view of God is that He has a lock and key on the door with the sign--God’s Will for Sumpter. Our God is on hand, He's involved and nearby, but He's the Concealer. He'll open the door if I will 1) rightly see the providential signs and 2) faithfully keep my heart right before Him. Who wants to serve a God who says He has a plan for each life, but it's concealed and you have to find it?

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! Warning! On number #1, My view of God is that He’s supposedly leading me, arranging and ordering providential markers for me to follow, if only I can read His signs accurately. Maybe reading the signs includes a conversation with a school teacher, or maybe it's an email notifying me of an up-coming job interview. With this view of God, He’s the God of Providence, and I'm supposed to be the god of Reading Providence! He's become the God of magic, powers, signs, connecting dots, impressions, hunches and horoscopes, etc. I am ultimately left in charge, left to myself to properly read the signs and to be the judge. There's the door, “God’s Will for Sumpter,” and I must find the right key, at the right time and turn it to open.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! Warning! On number #2, My diligence to keep my heart right with God leads me into a place of introspection, which, if made a habit long enough, leads me into self-analysis and paralysis. We can underscore paralysis. Paralysis is putting obedience on hold, and we turn and look inside of self attempting to find our way. Keeping my heart right with God is religious jargon for saying, “I’m staying so close with God, I’ll just know…I’ll just know what He wants me to do with my next step for my life.” Here I give myself to personal Bible reading waiting on a passage that speaks to me, waiting for inner peace. Prayer with right feelings about something takes over. These things are more of a pagan-like divination practice of personal piety for attempting to find God's personal will.

With both uses of these tools, we’re attempting to do something that God simply does not intend for His children. On the first, it’s impossible to faithfully read and interpret signs and happenings of providence. On the second, we keep ourselves at the center of things, and we set God off to the side. Often my feelings and inner peace become indicators on how I know I'm ready to move forward.

God’s general, revealed will centers us on Him, and it gives focus to His Word. It relieves the pressure of being on a quest for the discovery of His specially planned will for me as an individual. It keeps us from thinking that God is the God who conceals His will, and I must find it. So, we must conclude: the Bible does not give to us a specially-designed, individual will of God.

G. Mark Sumpter

God's Will, Part 1

God's Will, Generally, Foundation First

I'm not able to recall where in the writings of Elisabeth Eliot I've read her on the concept of making sure the Christian puts into practice the pursuit of God's will in the plain, revealed promises and commands of the Bible. This is a signature point of hers, maybe in Discipline: A Glad Surrender.

The general will of God means the wide-sweeping, general commands of the Bible. Such matters are first-steps of our marching orders. Things like: practice hospitality, pray with thanksgiving in all things, remember to keep the Sabbath, confess the Lord Jesus before men, forgive those who come saying, "I repent," abstain from sexual immorality, give of the tithes and offerings to the Lord, do not steal, do not tell lies, admonish the unruly, comfort the fainthearted and more.

Men and women and young people seek out a counselor, an elder, pastor, teacher or a parent and they believe that a word from God about His plan will be spoken to them about specific practicalities--like, "attend the University of Washington" or "purchase the GMC truck." It's like walking into a classroom and seeing the handwriting on the white board and they say, "See, here it is; this is God's will and His plan for me." It's their attempt to get God's will in a specific order addressed specifically to them about their specific circumstances.

But right in the same stride in life, at the very same time, these same men and women and young people ignore the general will of God, the revealed commands and promises in His Word. There's an immediate warning about this. Those who are not giving attention to His general will, those who are hit and miss about it, those who are choosy and fair-weather minded about it, those who are feelings oriented with respect to it, will be the same about making decisions regarding His will in the specific steps of the nitty gritty.

What's the answer? We're to pray through and appropriate Christ's strength for daily obedience according to the plainness of what God has said. His will revealed is first order. Why first order? 1. He's glorified and loved ("Love the Lord your God"). 2. We're pursuing Him for first-order matters of His righteousness ("Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness"). 3. We're putting into practice His promises, and this especially has a bearing on guidance, ("Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way.")

The general will of God always carries the weight of knowing and doing God's will in the details.

G. Mark Sumpter