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THE BIG QUESTION: HOW DO WE DETERMINE WHAT GOD’S WILL IS?

Colossians 1:1-14; Psalm 1

A sermon preached at First Presbyterian Church by Carter Lester on

July 10, 2016

Ah, John and Julie – what a carefree time this is for you! All those decisions you get to make each day about schedules, how to respond to a crying child when all options have seemingly been explored, how to give equal attention to two girls, how to take care of the girls all day and still take care of classes and work responsibilities, how to find time to get a meal on the table, take care of a house, and occasionally sleep. Aren’t you glad that both girls came with such detailed owner’s manuals when they arrived?

And now here you have gone and made promises to God and before all of these people! How will you know what to do? How will you do God’s will and be good parents to Vanessa and Alicia so that they grow up to be healthy young women, mentally, physically, and spiritually?

Of course, it is not only John and Julie,or parents, who have to deal with all of these challenges, issues, and questions when it comes to discerning God’s will. Life is filled with choices and turning points: What major should I choose? What career should I go into? Where should I live? Whom will I date? Is this person “the one?” or should I keep looking? Should I take this new job? When should I retire and what should I do in my retirement? Should I take this course of treatment or go through this surgery – or simply let things take their course?

No wonder Paul prays for the Colossians. His prayer is one that we probably all hope will be made on our behalf: “For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

A good prayer – but one that raises the big question that all Christians ask at multiple times in our lives: how do weknow what God’s will is?

First, we need to recognize that when we speak of God’s will, we are not talking about a single blueprint or puzzle or an oppressive set of rules.

I have heard many people talk about “God’s plan for their life.” What it sounds like when they say that is that God has in mind for them one path, leading to one school, one career, and, they hope, one man or woman. The problem with thinking about God’s will in that way is that it makes God’s will “out there waiting to be found…But how do you know where to look? And how do you know when you’ve found it?”[1] And then what happens if you make a mistake and go to the wrong school, choose the wrong career, or heaven forbid, the wrong man or woman? From this perspective, the will of God can resemble something like the secret recipe of Coke or a Rubik’s cube puzzle on steroids, as though there is one blueprint out there that we need to find, one puzzle that we need to solve.

There are others who speak of the will of God like some medicine that we need ,to take. It tastes terrible, but if we take it, we will feel better. There is the will of God – the things we should do – versus the life that we would like to lead, the fun life.

But the Scriptures never really speak about a single plan or blueprint for our lives. Instead, the prophet Jeremiah, for example, speaks about the “plans” that God has for us, “plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (29:10). Surely, we can understand that God is at least as flexible as the gps system in our cars that can recalculate and give us a new way to go when we miss a turn, or go miles out of our way. The God we discover in the Bible is not a God of rigid and inflexible plans like the novice cook who can only follow a preset recipe. Instead, God is more like the cook who can take the ingredients on hand in our lives and concoct something delicious and nutritious with those ingredients – if we listen to the cook.

God’s will is not intended to be a nearly unsolvable puzzle. Neither does God play hide and seek with us when we try to discern God’s will. Instead God is quite open about God’s will. As the prophet Micah tells us, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” What is God’s will? It is simple: to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Of course, as Philip Cary has written, “what this verse has to teach us takesa lifetime to learn.”[2]

But most importantly, God wants us to understand and do God’s will. As we just proclaimed in Alicia’s baptism, what God says to each one of us in our baptism is that we are God’s beloved, precious and cherished by God. Jesus came into the world so that we “might have life and have it abundantly,” as John 10:10 tells us. God’s will is not an oppressive set of rules that we need to follow with pinched noses and gritted teeth. God’s will is a gift for us, so that we can experience the abundant life that God in love wants to give us.

Second, if discerning the will of God is a gift for us, then the only way for us to open that gift is to turn to the Giver.

To discern the will of God, we need to listen to God – by reading the Scriptures, by worshipping regularly, and by praying daily. But even these practices, as important as they are, are not of much help if we don’t have the right attitude. Throughout it all, we need an attitude of willingness, of being open to what God wants to teach us and God wants us to do.

The Bible, worship, and prayer are all gifts that God gives us so that we can grow in our understanding of God’s will. But there is another gift just as important: the community of faith. We do not seek God’s will on our own. We can benefit from the gifts of community.

It is always helpful to have companions on the way of life. But that is especially true when we reach a major milestone or turning point. When we are newly married or newly divorced or widowed; when we are new parents or are struggling with delays in becoming parents; when we are considering a new job or facing retirement after a lifetime of work, it is helpful to have others to talk to and learn from: other people who are in the same situation, or even better, have gone ahead of us and can give us some insights and reflections about what they have experienced and learned. John and Julie, you are wise to seek a church to help you raise your girls. And from personal experience with our three daughters, I can tell you these are good folks to help you. But, of course, as you know, you have to be here to get that help.

The community that God gives us is not limited to the people living in the Pottstown area in 2016. We can learn from those who lived in other centuries or in other places as well. For example, there are a number of practices that have been developed through the years that can be helpful for making major decisions, such as about a job or new direction in life. There is nothing magical about them; no formula that you can follow like some incantation to deliver a specific result. But like good fishing spots, these practices have been proven to be helpful more times than not. If you are interested in these tested practices, Kerry or I will be glad to share them with you. One thing they have in common is the importance of having other people help us to discern God’s will.

Third, discerning the will of God is a lifelong quest in which the process can be as important as the end result.

When we speak about discerning and doing the will of God, we often think in terms of the big decisions and choices in life: choices about what job to take and when to change jobs, whether this is the woman or man we are to marry or if there is someone else; whether God is calling us to participate in this ministry or lead that ministry.

But if the truth be told, our lives are made up of lots of little but important decisions all along the way. As Robert Bolles, a Christian and author of the massive bestselling job counseling book, What Color is Your Parachute? has written, there are always two roads before us every time and every day: one of which leads to less gratitude, less kindness, less forgiveness, less honesty or less love in the world. The other will lead to more gratitude, more kindness, more forgiveness, more honesty, or move love in the world.

Think about that – isn’t it true?For example, someone hurts us. We can institute icy silence or punish them or otherwise get even. Or we can speak the truth about our hurt feelings and be willing to forgive. An opportunity to choose between two roads, one that leads to more love and one that leads to less love.[3] Those little choices and decisions not only affect our relationships; they also affect us. Our character is a product of our choices.

And so it is that discerning God’s will is a life-long task. Steve Doughty writes about a beautiful painting a ninety-four year-old friend gave him. “I stared at this unexpected treasure for a few moments, knowing that George painted in his ‘spare time.’

‘George, this is stunning,’ I said. ‘Do you paint often?’

“Every day,’ he answered. ‘That’s the only way to keep growing in the gift,’” Doughty writes.[4]

As with the artist, musician, and athlete, while practice in discerning and doing the will of God doesn’t make us perfect, it does make us better. We are called to seek and discern God’s will not just when we face big decisions, but with all of the little decisions that make up each day. That is the only way we can keep growing in the gift, growing in wisdom, growing in faith, growing in hope, and most importantly, growing in love.

Learning to do God’s will is a life-long quest in which the process is as important as the results. Sometimes the process takes a lot longer than we want. Sometimes we can feel like we are trying to listen but God is not speaking. Sometimes we can feel like we are in a dry wilderness and we feel lost and abandoned.

No matter how long we have been a Christian, no matter how strong we may seem in our faith, there will always be times of dryness and wilderness, times of waiting and waiting and waiting. But once again our attitude and our willingness to pay attention and receive the gift that God can give us even in such times of waiting can help that wilderness be a place of spiritual deepening. From personal experience, I can tell you that times in the wilderness can lead to a greater capacity for patience and trust in God and compassion for others.

Sometimes the wilderness we find ourselves in is one of our own making. We make mistakes or poor choices, fail, or lose our way. When that happens do not forget your baptism and the promise that God made to you there. God never falls out of love with us. Instead, our loving and gracious God is quick to give us second chances. But even more importantly, by the grace of God, our sins and mistakes can be fruitful and help us grow – if we take the time to listen and learn. The grace of God can be something of a compost pile, taking the trash and dead things in our life, and with time and a little sun and water, turn them into good soil for things to grow in.

Wisdom is not automatic – but sometimes there may be no greater way of growing in wisdom than going through a wilderness of waiting, or a wilderness of wandering because of our mistakes – and then finding out first-hand that we can come out the other side. Because through it all, we see that we were never alone. God is our companion. We seek wisdom and Wisdom was always right there beside us.

There is always more we can say when it comes to discerning the will of God. But it always ends with this final “all encompassing assurance:” “lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”[5]

Thanks be to God!

Let us pray: O God, may we be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that we may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as we bear fruit in every good work. And may we be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power and may we be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father. In the name of the One whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sins, we pray. Amen.

[1] Philip Cary, “No Secret Plan, Christian Century, October 5, 2010, 20.

[2] Philip Cary, “No Secret Plan, Christian Century, October 5, 2010, 20-21.

[3] Richard N. Bolles, How to Find Your Mission in Life (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1981), 34, 36.

[4] Steven V. Doughty and Marjorie J. Thompson, The Way of Discernment: Participant’s Book (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2008), 52.

[5] Doughty, 107.