Finding God's Will for Me
July 2005
But this is the new covenant I will
make with the people . . .I will put
my laws in their minds so they will
understand them and I will write them
on their hearts so they will obey
them. - Hebrews 8:10 (NLT)
When I was pregnant with my first
son, I began a love affair with chocolate.
In my whole life I have never really
had a taste for it until my 8th month
of pregnancy. One day, all of a sudden,
I wanted chocolate. Something happened
while the new life of my son was growing
inside me that completely changed
my taste buds to desire something
that I had never previously desired.
Now, I can't seem to get enough of
it.
When the new life of the Holy Spirit
takes up residence in you, He begins
to change your taste buds. Under the
new covenant described in Hebrews
8:10, the Holy Spirit causes you to
understand and desire God's will for
you. This means that when you and
I are in fellowship with God and remain
in His word, our emotions and understanding
will be guided by the leading of God
in us.
There are so many of us that are desperately
seeking to know the will of God for
our lives. We are hungrily seeking
His will and looking around every
corner to discover it. In fact, we
often create and carry a very heavy
load of responsibility that weighs
us down in the Christian race because
we are always wondering if the decisions
we are making are in God's will for
us. But God's truth is designed to
set us free not create bondage (John
8:32). Here's a bit of truth that
can and will set you free: Philippians
2:13 says that desiring and doing
His will is not our responsibility
to discover, it's His responsibility
to reveal. It says, "For it is
God who is at work in us to will and
to work for His good pleasure".
In other words, it is God's job to
work in you to cause you to want to
do what is pleasing to Him and to
give you the power to pull it off.
What a relief, huh? When I discovered
this truth, I felt such a sense of
freedom! "He writes his laws
on our hearts and on our minds so
that our affection and our understanding
embrace them and we are drawn to obey
instead of being driven to it"
(Hannah Whitall Smith, Secrets of
Happy, p101)
No longer do I frantically search
for God's will, now I just frantically
search for God. I trust that it is
His responsibility to show me what
He wants me to do and how I am to
go about doing it. As I seek Him,
stay in His Word and continue to keep
an intimate relationship with Him
by confessing my sin, He transforms
my mind and emotions to align with
His plans and purposes for my life.
My son is now almost 3 years old and
I still love chocolate. At least two
or three times a week, I will indulge
myself and nibble on something that
has chocolate in it. It's still unbelievable
that to me that my tastes so radically
changed because of my pregnancy but
that's what happens when new life
takes up residence in you. Likewise,
the Holy Spirit has taken up residence
in you and me. He is changing our
tastes more and more every day to
suite what pleases Him. When you are
following Him and His Word, you can
relax in knowing that He will order
your steps and cause you to desire
what brings Him pleasure.
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