Friends, this blog post is born out of a recent revelation of mine, which in turn was born out of a conversation had with friends. Hubby and I recently had a couple of friends over for dinner. With them, we are always guaranteed rich and deep conversations, so we were definitely looking forward to it. We weren’t disappointed.

At some point in the visit (don’t ask me now how we got there), we got on to talking about the will of God. Oh yea, I think it had to do with trying to figure out what one is supposed to do with life. So that’s the best I can recall. Annnnyhoo, they started sharing about a message they’d recently listened to that transformed their thinking. I’ll try to do it (the conversation AND the message) justice here as I seek to summarize somewhat.

The basic idea or context they began with is that there is a school of thought that sees the will of God as ONE definite thing. People thinking along these lines would quote Romans 12: 2 and 3 to help their argument. I actually recognized that school of thought because I’ve subscribed to it for most of my life! I think every church or Sunday School or Bible Study group I’ve ever attended or been a part of taught me along those lines. The problem with that thinking is that it is anchored by fear. And fear is never of God. The fear would be manifest more along the lines of: “what if I miss His will for my life?” “How do I know His perfect will?” Such fear can cripple when we need to make a major life decision. Do I move? Do I stay? Do I take that job? And so on. We would then feel that if we never hear the Lord clearly on it, we dare not take a step in any direction. Again, for fear that doing even so would lead to our completely missing “it” in life!

These friends went on to speak about that message that impacted them, by Eric Johnson of Bethel Church. When they were done sharing, I felt like I was on mute! What an eye-opener! Their paradigm shift-inducing info came right as I’d been thinking of various things after reading about the parable of the talents in Matthew 25: 14-30. In that tale, the man/master hadn’t told the servants/employees what to do with what he’d given them. So, I’ve always wondered why the two servants seemed to just know to invest their talents while the one didn’t. I’ve also always wondered why that one servant indicated in verse 25 that he was “afraid”, and so hid the talent. What could he have been afraid of? Well, the conversation finally answered those questions. In short: the other two knew their master’s (or boss’) heart. In other words, they knew his nature, and as such, what things would matter to him. It should be the same with us with regard to decision-making. Now, I’m not saying that we ought to forgo entirely the idea of inquiring of the Lord, but in times when we seem uncertain of His will, and yet we’re pretty sure He’s not saying “no” or “wait”, is it possible that He, as a loving Father, just wants us to choose what we want? Heck, an earthly father might present his kids with four ice cream flavors to pick from, and allow them to choose based on their preferences, moods, or whatever. Our heavenly Father may sometimes present us with three job opportunities and allow us to make a decision based on our preferences, family’s needs, etc. Still doubt this is possible? Consider what it says in Psalms 37: 4 – Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart (emphasis mine). I dunno…that seems pretty clear to me.

It comes down to one thing. Know Him. Know His heart. Enjoy the process of knowing Him, and enjoy His Fatherhood. Believe in the robust will of God for you. The Bible says He rejoices over us with singing. Wow. Sounds like He for sure delights in us!

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