Understanding God's Will for your life...

I’ve studied for this test all I’m going to.  If I fail, its God’s will.

He was so young.  But God called him home.  His death must be God’s will.

The earthquake took the entire country by surprise and I feel sorry for the villagers who perished.  It must be God’s will.

Lots of things in our world – good and bad – are credited to God as God’s will.  I am sure you have heard stuff like the thoughts above.  Its tough to know when and how God is acting in the world.  And how do you tell when something is God’s will and when it is just your own will?

I recently read about a little girl in a loving congregation who was full of life and then suddenly diagnosed with leukemia at the age of three.  The article stated that “I watched simple people, those whom Jesus called the salt of the earth, increase their saltiness even as they suffered along with the girl’s family.  They said prayers, expressed doubt, prayed in faith, hoped against hope, and loved increasingly.”

Perhaps you have seen this in our congregation or some other community of faith you have been involved in.  When you consider all that happens during a crisis, you cant help but feel that you might be closer to understanding God’s will. 

You see, I don’t thing God’s will refers to where the tragedy originated from, but where did the crisis lead to. God calls each of us to use our heart, mind, soul and strength to learn, to care, to love, and to cure diseases.  God has provided us all we need to do these very things.  God’s will makes itself know in the actions of people, in the words of the Bible, and through your own reason and experience. 

As you seek to do God’s will. To love, God with your whole being and to love your neighbor as yourself, you may not find answers to all your questions, but you will, day by day, learn to discern the will of God – both for your life and for the life of the world.