“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
I tend to be a black and white person. I’m not a huge fan of all the shades of gray but I’m learning. Thankfully, God gave me a husband who is all grace. He sees all the shades and helps me to do so as well.
One of the areas I always struggle is when someone is searching for God’s will. Don’t get me wrong, I love they are searching. It’s where they are searching I struggle with by times. 80% of God’s will is already laid out for us. It is in His Word.
I believe it can be summed in two verses:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
Love God, Love others. Seems simple enough. We all know it isn’t.
Feelings get in the way of loving both God and people. How easy is it for you to not agree with God? Or God’s decisions in your life? I can tell you I was 16 when my Dad died, I wasn’t God’s biggest fan then. When I lost my job a few years later, again not the head cheerleader. Those are just a couple of the many times I’ve struggled with God. It has been years since both of those things happened. As I look back on them now, I can see God in it the entire time. He was there caring, loving and protecting me. I just wasn’t looking around to see it. I love Him more now than I ever could, partly because of those very situations.
Then there are people. Just last week I had my feelings hurt so deeply it took days for me to work through it. I leaned heavily into 1 Corinthians 13:12:
“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
I have to tell you, as hard as it was for me to work through last week, I grew so much. I had never applied this verse to relationships. It has totally changed the way I think. It completely reminded me the person who hurt me didn’t even know it. I could only see part of the situation, I had no idea what the whole situation was or even is. God loves both of us and He knows the whole story. I can trust Him. I don’t need to know all the details, I just need to love.
My bottom line. It takes the rest of God’s Word to help me live out loving Him and loving people. I’m grateful He wrote so much of it down for me, 80% in fact. I find the other 20% takes care of itself. I’m too busy trying to follow the 80% to even notice.
I do know this though, you have to read His word to find His will. I also know feelings lie. If I had listened to my feelings last week I would of lost a friend. Instead, I’ve grown closer to God and preserved my friendship.
Don’t let your feelings shade the Son from your eyes. Keep them focused directly on Him. He’ll show you the way!
God's Will is Not a Feeling
