The Real Question About God’s Will
This is part 1 of the Broken Compass article series about the will of God.
I don’t know about you but one of the most challenging aspects of life is trying to determine God’s will for our lives. A lot of people start really putting a lot of emphasis upon this at the beginning of a new year. Why? Because there is a newness in that time of year that makes people feel the importance of starting off on the right foot and starting off on the right foot involves doing what God has purposed you to do.
In case you have not realized it, God has a purpose for every single one of us and it has been his design from the very start that we live out that purpose in our lives. But figuring out that purpose can be one of the most frustrating experiences a person can undergo. There is hope because God has actually made it a little bit easier than many think to discover his will for our lives. You see, the problem with a lot of us is that we are looking at this discovery process from the wrong angle; one that is focused more on man than on God.
Our approach to finding God’s will for our lives revolves around finding his will for me. Instead, God wants us to take a step back and figure out what God’s purpose is for him. In other words, it is important that before we know what specific role God has for us in this life that we figure out what God intends for this world and get involved.
Our Most Important Task
Our most important task as Christians is the worship of God. Missions is probably second to that. Why? Because God’s intent is for the entire created order to worship him as preeminent. Missions exists to make this reality. In other words, missions exists because worship doesn’t.
Missions is at the heart of what God is doing in Scripture because his desire is that the world worship him (Isaiah 42:8, 12). This is why he created Israel (Exodus 6:3-7). He wanted a unique group of people who would make the leading others to worship him the preeminent task of their lives.
It seems to me that the establishment of the Abrahamic covenenant (Genesis 12:1-3) is the climax of the book of Genesis. The creation of man and everything up through chapter 11 all seem to point to this critical moment when God makes a covenant with Abraham. This is why Genesis 2 cannot just be about a marriage. If it is true that everything God does has mission in mind, then the purpose behind Adam needing a helper (Genesis 2:18) had more to do with him needing someone to help him fulfill mission God gave him than about him needing a woman to complete him (Genesis 2:15). In other words, in order for God to create a nation, the plan needed to include humans with the capacity to procreate and fill the earth with people from which the nation of Israel would come (Genesis 1:28).
The plan from the beginning included a nation, and eventually a world full of people who would worship God. Worship is ultimate and is the goal of missions. Jesus reiterates this in Matthew 28:19-20 (the Great Commission) when he is spending his last moments with his disciples. I like to think of this as some of his most important words to them because this is the last time he will be with them for an extended period of time. He tells them to go into the world and make disciples, and teach them everything he taught them.
Think for a moment what you would say if you were spending your last moments with someone you really cared about. You probably would not waste time with meaningless words. You would probably choose what you wanted to tell them carefully. I think this is what is happening here in Matthew 28. It’s probable that in Jesus’s mind these are words he most wants them to cherish and take seriously.
The fulfillment of the Great Commission is probably the most important task a Christian is to be engaged in outside of worship even though fulfilling the Great Commission in itself is an act of worship. This is something that every Christian is to do. God has told us fundamentally that his will for our lives is that we lead others to worship him. So a Christian should never be confused about what his life should be about to the extent that he/she does not do anything.
The Real Question
So now that we know we are all to fulfill the Great Commission, the real question becomes, what specific role are we to play. This is where a lot of the people are frustrated because they want that sense of fulfillment in their lives, but they just don’t know what they are supposed to do. Or perhaps they have taken the risk only to have everything fall apart on them.
Let me suggest the following. I think that in many instances, God is not going to show you your individual involvement in the Great Commission until you first find out what God is doing in the world and get involved.
Do you like working with kids but not quite sure if that should be with 8 year olds at church or in an orphanage? Then get started working with kids anywhere and the specifics will eventually become clear. Do you have a heart for unreached people groups? Go on a mission trip to any unreached people group and the specifics will become clear. Do you feel like God has put you on the shelf and is not using you anymore? Is it hard for you to trust him in this area? I would like to encourage you to get back out there and get involved.
In the next article in this series, I will show you an example from scripture that explains exactly what I am talking about. Stay tuned!
Robert
I love theology and the challenge of making deep teachings non-boring. Let's face it, most of the time we hear theological teaching, it really is boring. Does it really have to be that way? Nope.
