The will of God #1

Here I am, finally a post-grad young adult. Far from being a violent transition, there have been many things I've been doing the past year in order to simulate and prepare for this point. The aim: to saturate purpose into every hour of every day. The motivation: to align myself to the will of God - simple enough. The motivation for the motivation: to enjoy his spirit leading the way. Honestly, any one of those three statements could be switched with the other lol such is the language of Christianese. Regardless. Many times I've failed to align myself to his desires, but his mercies have been new and newer to strengthen this almost-man child of his.

The will of God. We should thank God for his word in helping us understand what this means in non-abstract, non-mystical, non-hypothetical terms. The Christian that is frustrated with "lack of direction" has put his faith in the wrong thing, namely, trusting circumstance for security instead the God controlling the circumstance. His clarity is what makes him a gracious God, and we put our faith into what he has made clear. Using scripture, therefore, John MacArthur has provided a helpful framework in discerning his will, explained below in order of priority:

• He wills that I be saved. Again and again. There is no desire of God's outside of this one whereby he would want anything other than for me to be steeped in the intimate knowledge of my sonship. (2AM has not shown mercy on my prosing)
  
• He wills that I be sanctified. I cannot not be aware of my sin and call that God's will. It's all about greater awareness: my fallenness, my identity in him, my working out his salvation with fear and trembling.
  
• He wills that I be spirit-led. Far be it from me to over-spiritualize something, especially in light of recent tragedies like this. Following the spirit involves abiding in the word (ever pondered the manifold wisdom of an infinite God and the condescension it must take to put that into human language? Just wow...never take your Bible for granted) and being sharpened by a community likewise abiding.
  
• He wills that I be sacrificial. No room for sideline Christianity. Am I number 1 or are others? No matter how "busy" I'll get with life, there will always be examples (other than Jesus himself) of busier people who still lay down their lives for the kingdom, leading to..
  
• He wills that I be a servant. Honestly, John, I don't know the difference between this and the last point, but things are still worth repeating. Is my life being poured out for the sake of the gospel? May I never be too busy for this, I have 168 hours a week at my disposable. Trust me, I've done the math!

The more I adhere to these clear outlines of his will, the more joy I experience. To repeat a Timmy K. quote I tweeted earlier, "The lack of joy in our life is due to our lack of mission." And so by converse, fullness of joy is found in him because he makes known to us the path of life (Psalm 16:11)!