Paul shares with the Colossians that their brother in Christ, who was sent to minister to Paul in prison, Epaphras, was “wrestling in prayer” for them that they might “stand firm in all the will of God.”
What did Paul mean by “all the will of God?” He was saying we should seek to be in God’s will in every aspect of it, like our home life, social life, work life, financial life, relational life, church life, etc. Seeking God’s will for every aspect of life is essential to living life on purpose.
One thought that’s helpful as we think about the various aspects of God’s will, is that God’s will for our lives can fit into one of 3 areas:
1) The viewpoint will of God - what would God have me think?
How God wants me to think is important because how I think will determine how I act.
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” - Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV)
2) The operational will of God - what would God have me do?
What does God want me to do about managing opportunities, time, relationships, money, talents or career? All that I have in life is on loan from God. He is the owner, and I am the manager. So it makes sense that I should seek to know what He says about how I manage the details of my life. The Bible word for this is stewardship. How I manage the details of my life will determine where I should be.
3) The geographic will of God - where would God have me be?
Where would God have me be with respect to my career, my education, my church, my marriage, my family, my eternity? The answers to these questions come as I’m faithful to manage my life as God directs me, which I will be enabled to do as I think as God wants me to think.
Every aspect of God’s will for my life will fit into one of these three categories. But notice where it all begins. It begins with our thinking as God wants us to think. That will lead to my doing as God wants me to do and being where God wants me to be. If my thinking is consistent with God’s will, then so will everything else.
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” - Romans 12:2 (NLT)
But how do I learn to think as God wants me to think? The prayer of Epaphras give us the answer.
1. We must seek to be fully mature.
“Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” - 1 Corinthians 14:20 (ESV)
God wants us to grow in maturity through the use of His Word.
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” - Hebrews 5:12-14 (ESV)
In describing a new movie, a critic wrote, “The plot moves rapidly down the sewer.” Such is the case for each of us when interacting with our culture. Many things presented by our culture for us to think on rapidly move down the sewer. And to make things worse, as Dave Ramsey points out, we are living in the age of the most marketed to generation ever. Wouldn’t it be nice if the mind was equipped with a garbage disposal, like your kitchen sink? We could flush away the falsehoods and filth our minds are daily bombarded with and not be affected by it. Well, the Word of God is that garbage disposal! The more we expose ourselves to the truth, the more we can discern between good and evil (Hebrews 5:14), rejecting the evil and embracing the truth.
Interacting with the Word of God is something we should devote ourselves to everyday. For, as someone once put it, “The biggest room in all the world is the room for improvement.”
While none of us will ever be able to say we’ve “arrived,” we should be ever “striving to arrive” at full maturity, like Paul.
“I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” - Philippians 3:12-14 (The Message)
“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.” - John Newton
Seeking to fully mature by being in God’s Word, I’ll think as God wants me to think, which will lead me to do what God wants me to do, and be where God wants me to be.
2. We must seek to be fully assured.
There are at least three things about which we need to be fully assured if we are going to stand firm in all the will of God for our lives.
Otherwise, our lack of assurance can hold us back from experiencing God’s plan for our lives.
A. We need to be fully assured of our salvation.
We’ve already spoke of this in this series. We find purpose in life, in a personal connection with God through faith in Christ. So it’s important that we are fully assured that we belong to God. Without this assurance, it is harder to move forward to live a life of purpose as a Christian.
“There can be no true peace, there can be no true hope, there can be no true comfort where there is uncertainty.
I am not fit for God’s service, I cannot go out and work for God, if I am in doubt about my own salvation.” - D.L. Moody
If I’m going to do what God wants us to do and be where God wants me to be in life, I need to know what God wants me to know; and one thing God wants me to know is that I am saved. With that assurance, I can move forward in with confidence. By the way, if you’re seeking to mature, God’s Word will help you with this.
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” - 1 John 5:13 (ESV)
B. We need to be fully assured of God’s love.
One of the most difficult struggles faced by each of us is the struggle with self esteem. God wants us to know we are a person of worth and eternal value. That’s part of why Jesus came.
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” - Romans 5:8 (NLT)
The Dean of the Doctor of Ministry program at Southwestern Seminary when I studied for my doctorate, Jimmie Nelson, once shared his testimony with our class. He said he was born to a young lady who gave him up for someone else to raise. When all was said and done, he had known six different mothers by the time he was six years old. He struggled with self esteem until he came to Christ. The cross assured him he was loved, and knowing he was eternally loved by God enabled him to move forward with confidence in life.
If we’re going to do what God wants us to do and be where God wants us to be in life, we need to think as God wants us to think, and the cross lets us know that we are a person of eternal value and worth.
C. We need to be fully assured of God’s guiding presence.
When I accepted Christ, He came to dwell within me through the presence of His Spirit, who is with me everyday to guide and direct me.
“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” - Galatians 5:25 (NLT)
It’s been said that while Samuel prayed, “Speak Lord, for your servant hears,” we pray, “Listen Lord, for your servant speaks.”
We need to rest assured of God’s guiding presence and surrender each day to allowing Him to guide us by His Spirit through His Word, through prayer, through circumstances and through His people.
Conclusion: As we mature in the faith and are assured of our salvation, of God’s loves, and His guiding presence, we’ll think as God wants us to think, do what God wants us to do and be where God wants us to be, standing firm in all the will of God.
Donna and I recently read the following from our daily devotional written by Nancy Lee Demoss: You likely know the story of Eric Liddell, the Scottish athlete whose faith and courage during the 1924 Paris Olympics were vividly portrayed in the award-winning film Chariots of Fire. You recall his principled decision not to participate in his primary event - the hundred-yard dash - because the qualifying heats were to be held on a Sunday, and how he then went on to win the gold medal in a race for which he’d never trained, setting a world record in the process. The choice Eric made as a young athlete to honor God was characteristic of choices made throughout his life. In 1925, he returned to North China to serve as a missionary as his parents had during his childhood. After years of faithful ministry he was interned in a Japanese concentration camp where he joyfully and generously ministered to his fellow prisoners. During his detainment, he developed a brain tumor that impaired his bodily functions, leaving him partially paralyzed. Dying. On February 21,1945, Eric lay in a hospital bed, struggling to breathe, drifting in and out of consciousness. Suddenly his body erupted into a violent convulsion. Shocked, the nurse tending to his care scooped him up into her arms, trying to calm his trembling body. Then, in those fleeting seconds before he slipped into a coma, she heard him speak these final words in a barely audible voice, no doubt reflecting on the span of his life’s choices: He said, “it’s complete surrender.” The choices Liddell made as a young man set the trajectory for his life and carried him all the way to the finish line.
May we make the same kind of choices. Let’s choose to surrender to God’s will above all.
