Wednesday, May 21, 2008

God's will?

I am beginning to hate the phrase "God's will." I have been hearing it a lot lately, and it is just driving me nuts! It seems like every single Christian I encounter drops that phrase. What disgusts me is not the concept of God's will. I do believe that God has a will and wants His will to be fulfilled in our lives. However, I think we hide behind that phrase to justify doing whatever it is we feel like doing. "It is God's will that I quit my job." "It is God's will that I buy this car." "It is God's will that I raise my kids this way." "It is God's will..." I wonder how many times we actually have found His will. Do we really know what it is to have truly found the will of God? Many times in my own life I have made decisions for myself or my family based upon the notion that I was doing it for God's will. The reality is I was simply following what felt best for me. I may or may not have gotten God's will right, but that had more to do with His grace than my actual following. We are selfish people with selfish desires and personal agendas. God's will simply becomes a fluffy way of justifying our decision making. I wonder what would happen if we truly sought after God's will in each and every thing we did? Its hard to tell because I just do not see that happening. Does this mean we are hopeless? Maybe. But perhaps we can do things a different way. Instead of justifying our decisions with the preface of "it was God's will" - it would be better to just admit that we want things our way. If you don't like where you are living - move and admit that you are moving because you want to live elsewhere. You don't like what you are doing - quit and admit that you wanted a job you liked better. You want to buy a car, gadget, whatever - buy it and admit you were splurging on yourself. Could this lead to poor decisions? Sure! But at least it is authentic. Pretending to be following after the will of God while in reality doing something based upon your own selfish desires is far worse in my book. I guess I am just frustrated by myself and those around me. I do want to do what God wants me to do with my life. But I readily admit that I am still addicted to my own selfish-sinful desires at times. What I don't want is for myself to bring the name of Almighty God down to my level just because I don't have the guts to admit I am making a decision based upon me.

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