The Will of God...
As a believer, I’m sure this is a question you have asked… What is the will of God in my life? And it’s a BIG question, I get it. I don’t have the answers for you, and can’t say I’ve mastered anything here to pass along.
But here’s a quote I ran across this morning on Instagram and it stopped me in my scrolling! I had to think about this one for a bit…
“The WILL of God will not take us where the GRACE of God cannot sustain us. ~ Billy Graham
I don’t know if this is speaking loudly to you, but it sure is to me and here’s why.
The “will of God” aka {PURPOSE} is somewhat of a journey… it actually “takes us” on a whole life journey, I’d say. And it’s not an easy journey. It can be uncomfortable, maybe even painful and certainly lonely at times. So this quote by Billy Graham is such a beautiful thing to contemplate. GRACE is such a BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING thing!
If you’ve followed my blog for a bit, then you know this year PURPOSE is my #onelittleword and it’s definitely something the Lord is teaching me about, but here’s what He showed me this morning in my devotional time.
The WILL OF GOD is a calling He has placed on ALL His children.
Did you catch that? I don’t know if you need reminding, like I often do, but we ARE children of God. That’s BIG “G” God. Do we really let that sink in and soak in enough? That the all powerful, all knowing, all loving, Creator of the Universe and worthy to be praised God… is our FATHER!
John 1:12 says “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
So how would our days, our jobs, our conversations look if we looked at the ETERNAL PURPOSE of our lives… in the present day to day? (Remember, His WILL is not going to take us where His GRACE won’t sustain us.. be there for us.)
YES, I get that we are wives, mothers, sisters, friends, workers, teachers, students, etc. and amongst those roles we play, we are pretty darn busy! Thinking about the “eternal” in our day to day isn’t probably at the forefront of our minds… it’s how can I get all this “stuff” (that being a kind word to use, lol) DONE in my day! And I know we are all trying to fulfill our commitments to the best of our abilities and we fail at that sometimes, or maybe a lot of the time.
But lets remind ourselves of a few things here:
These roles we have don’t tell the whole story of who we are. We are MORE because we are children of God.
And… BECAUSE we are children of God, we have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. (Look up these verses if you doubt that: Romans 8:26, Acts 1:8 & John 14:26)
So then… are we seeking that power that’s been placed inside us to help us in our day to day, or in our weaknesses and our worries?
Do we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us?
And this one is hard, I know… but are we willing to let the Will of God (which means surrendering OUR will) take us places… maybe even painful places to allow His will to be done?
(I hope you know I am preaching to myself here as well. In all honestly, it’s something the Holy Spirit is showing me, specifically this morning, because I need to hear it! I go from moments of praise and worship and trusting that the Lord has me in His hands and is working ALL things for good… and then I’m literally in tears because my mind wanders and I’m worried about something and have to get on my knees yet AGAIN…)
So I completely get that we are weak, that we want the EASY route, we want HAPPY and we want “what we want.” Boy am I learning about surrendering lately. But remember that quote from the beginning…
He won’t take you ANYWHERE where His GRACE won’t meet you there!
Can I get a Thank you JESUS!!
I thank God for His grace! This Christian walk comes with a lot of bumps and bruises along the path, but I am confident there is no better path to be on. I can’t imagine going through life without Christ by my side. I’d be a much bigger mess I’m sure of it!
Our pastor last Sunday said: “That no fruit comes without dying to ourselves.”
Matthew 16:24 says: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
In a world that has made it so easy to live for SELF and to look for answers from every thing, every “self help” guru and everywhere else BUT the one book that has ALL our answers, the Word of God, it’s hard to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus.
Here’s an honest confession… As I have walked most of my life with the Lord, I have always looked at the verse above as something only a “full time missionary” needed to do. Who really thinks about denying themselves? Who thinks that if we don’t get what we want or we don’t do what makes us “happy”…. that that IS God’s will? That it’s GOOD for us to deny ourselves. No, we’re usually upset about it! Right? We want our WAY… we want OUR will.
But what greater PURPOSE and what greater WILL is there than to seek after God?
Think of someone who you know or know of that is following after the calling the Lord has placed on their life. I think of a few people who have impacted my life: Billy Graham, Priscilla Shirer and Mark Batterson. There is no greater HOPE the when we see people doing the Will of God. It is such a JOY to see them walking with Jesus and having an impact on this world!
And there is no greater HOPE that we can give to this world than to shine our light on what the Lord can do! It’s not us… it’s not our power… It is GOD, living in us that will shine!
So as a mom, wife, grandma or whatever our roles are, let’s be SO GRATEFUL for the GRACE that we walk this road with. As we make mistakes, as we say YES to surrendering our lives and letting God work in us, cleanse us, and reveal things to us, this is where He will sustain us (strengthen us), and Lord willing He will shine through us with His eternal LOVE, GRACE and PURPOSE!
Let us know what this quote means to you.
We’d love to hear from you and see how you’ve seen the Lord working in your life to show you His will.
Let’s continue to encourage one another as we walk this journey with the Lord.
A month from TODAY my daughters and I will be headed to our next Art & Faith Creative Retreat in Italy. We will be learning about ABIDING in CHRIST with Ruth Chou Simons and I’ll share what the Lord is showing me through this theme He put on my heart and we’ll be posting our devotionals from the retreat on here and sharing LOTS of pictures as well on our IG and here.
Hugs to all,
Laura McCollough