God's Will

Something useful to do in walking with Christ:

Let Him change your plans. For by yielding to His will, you must first become vulnerable by sacrificing your own will. It is in this vulnerability that you express faith. For when you release the tight grip you hold on the steering wheel of your life and hand the wheel over to Him for Him to drive, you then enter into His will and thus have the opportunity to be submerged into His presence and apart of His plans.


1 corinthians 15: 54-58:
"Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
   “Death is swallowed up in victory.
     O death, where is your victory?
      O death, where is your sting?”
  For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.  But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless."

NLT application notes: (Paul says that because of the resurrection, nothing we do is useless. Sometimes we become apathetic about serving the Lord because we don't see any results. Knowing Christ has won the ultimate victory should affect the way we live right now. Don't let discouragement over an apparent lack of results keep you from doing the work of the Lord enthusiastically as you have opportunity.)

Isaiah 22:11b :
"But you never ask for help from the One who did all this. You never considered the One who planned this long ago."

NLT application notes: (The leaders of Judah did what they could to prepare for war. They got weapons, inspected walls, and stored up water in a reservoir. But all their work was pointless because they never asked God for help. Too often we take steps that, although good in themselves, really wont give us the help we need. We must get the weapons and inspect the walls, but God must guide the work.) 

***Something interesting to observe here is the seemingly obvious contradiction these two verses create. Notice how 1 Corinthians says "nothing we do for God is useless," and how Isaiah implies that the work that the leaders of Judah did was pointless. Though it would be easy to point out a contradiction, to do so would be incorrect for if we would be over looking the awesome truth that lies so perfectly between these two boundaries of scripture. There is a divine tension here that forms a solid theological principle:
*Everything we do here for God, IN CHRIST- meaning in regards to God's permission and will and assistance/help- will never be useless*

None of us are prone to doing pointless work, but often times we like to think otherwise by covering up the blatantly obvious with "that must have been God's will..." The fact is that it is possible that our work wasn't God's will. We can do pointless work and be unfruitful, which comes about more often than we think, but everything that is truly done FOR God (with Him as our intensions, motive, and goal) comes FROM God, and thus is His will. Nothing that is truly done FOR Him is useless because it is His will because it has come FROM Him. God's will is not something we create or produce, rather it is something we abide in, we do not have to pull it out of a top hat, we just have to latch onto Him. The reason being is because God's will can only be achieved IN CHRIST, (in faith of Christ); thus everything done without regarding Him is done in vain and anything done in vain is pointless for it has no eternal purpose. God's will has eternal purpose, for the only One who is eternal is God, thus only His purposes are eternal, not ours- for we are temporal and not lasting but for more than a moment. Therefore it only makes sense that anything we do in vain- for ourselves as the goal point- such work will be pointless because the purpose (which is ourselves) will only last as long as we do and that wont be very long. Therefore, may we work for that which truly lasts, from the One who lasts forever, for everything truly done for Him is from Him and can only be completed in Him. Therefore, nothing we do for God is useless, rather everything else we do that is not FOR God is useless, but everything we do IN CHRIST lasts for eternity.

Doing FOR God rearranges and sometimes destroys our plans, because in order to truly do FOR Him, it requires our time, willful obedience, and open sacrifice of our will so that we might abide in God's will. But when we let go of all the "what-ifs" in doing FOR Him and quickly as well as consistently grab ahold of God, our intensions begin to change our priorities and we begin to do truly FOR God which is in fact the will that comes FROM Him, and as we continue to abide, our work in His will because it is FOR Him continues to points us towards Him. Such acts make us faithful, obedient, and useful. May we allow Him to be our purpose, walk in His ways, and let our plans go. He is the way the truth and the life... may we follow Him, FOR Him, so that we might get to Him.

"We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, in order that in Him we might walk." -Ephesians 2:10

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interests of others. "- Philipians 2: 3-4

"Follow us, even as we follow Him, He will not disappoint." -Psalm 45

CHALLENGE: Evaluate your priorities, take a day- yes an entire day with God- let Him and His word read you and tell you what to do. Forfeit the schedule for one day, get away and get serious with God. No straining, just listening, and let Him give you your agenda. Express your faith in this way to Him. Continue running ladies, and yes- if it has been hard to keep the consistency, I feel your pain. But remember- the goal is consistency, for it is overcoming circumstances as excuses and thus allowing no excuse to prevent you from doing what you have set out to do. Tap into the power of the Holy Spirit, and exercise the power to choose. You don't have to like it, but you do have to do it. It doesn't have to be perfect either, but it does have to be complete. Run for the sake of discipline ladies. I believe you can do it. Persevere. Continue to prayer walk in your cool down walk after running- we are going to build a prayer life more and more because we want to form a habit here. Tap into the strength of the Holy Spirit. It is necessary for you to pray for others, for it helps take your focus off yourself, and it will release stress and keep your perspective healthy because you're looking at the big picture rather than just at yourself. Strive for God, Ladies- not to reach Him, because you've already got Him, but run for Him because He is your purpose for running. He is your reason. Keep it up, don't give up, this race is worth it.