Understanding God's Will ~ Romans 12:1-2

God’s will is often difficult to comprehend.  I know from experience that it’s easy to think we’re walking in His will right up until we come to a closed door.  When that happens, figuring out our next move can be a challenge: sometimes we don’t like where He’s taking us but we see that, though it hurts to change course, the path of God’s will really leads to something far better than we could ever conjure up on our own.  Whatever the case, we are explicitly told in the first two verses of Romans chapter 12 two steps we must take in order to find God’s will in our lives.

The first instruction Paul gives in Romans 12 is this: “…offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.  This is your spiritual act of worship.”  When we read about sacrifices in the Bible, they are dead.  A dead goat, a dead bull, a dead lamb.  What on earth does it mean to be a living sacrifice?  In my way of thinking, it means we put ourselves on the altar, giving all of our time, talents, and treasure to God’s will.  There it is again—God’s will!  So the first way to discern God’s will is to commit ourselves wholly and completely to whatever He is doing, whether it makes sense to us right now or not.  This total ‘handing over of self’ starts at the heart and works its way out from there.

Second, we are told, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  That is easier said than done.  We know what “the pattern of this world” is, and we know we’re not supposed to ‘go with the flow,’ so to speak; and we don’t—physically.  But often we catch ourselves thinking thoughts that don’t come from Jesus, and therefore are of the world.  This part of Paul’s instruction starts in the mind: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Thoughts don’t come from nowhere; they don’t just pop into your head.  We can think things on purpose, and I believe that is what Paul meant.  By intentionally thinking about things that glorify God and consciously committing our thoughts to Him by telling ourselves things like ‘God loves me,’ ‘I can do all things,’ and ‘I am a child of the King,’ we can discover His thoughts, His will.

Three or four years ago I went through a very trying time during which I didn’t commit my heart and mind to God, and so had no clue where he was taking me.  At the beginning of my freshman year in high school, my parents took issue with some part of the philosophy of the church my family was a part of, and they decided to pull up roots and move on.  I didn’t understand why we had to leave, and the emotional struggle that followed was perhaps the most difficult time I have ever experienced.  My parents and siblings made themselves comfortable at the church we currently attend, but I hardened my heart and refused to heal.  I was physically attending church but I wasn’t worshipping or fellowshipping there.  I had only a few old friends who actually stood by me during this time, as I lost touch with most of the others due to the change.  The tears eventually stopped, but I still felt a hole in my heart that I thought would never be filled.  I couldn’t imagine that this was part of God’s will for my life; I wasn’t willing to consider the possibility that God might want me somewhere other than where I thought I wanted to be.

Last summer I read Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, and it got me thinking.  Among other things, I started trying to improve my attitude and how I was acting towards my family.  Shortly afterwards, my parents decided I was going to start speech and debate, whether I wanted to or not.  I didn’t want to--it was the last thing in the world I wanted to do--but instead of fighting it I resolved to do hard things, opening my heart and mind to new possibilities and turning my own strong but crooked will over to God.  It’s a good thing I did, for I soon found myself smack in the middle of one of the most wonderful experiences of my life—the thing God used to fill me.  Through the forensics club I joined last fall, God has blessed me with a brand new circle of dear Christian friends, refreshed my passion and purpose in life, and renewed my relationship with Him and His Son.  His plan was not for me to remain in 'my' church, where I thought I wanted to be, and it certainly wasn't for me to keep moping around, refusing to find joy anywhere.  Instead, He took me out of what seemed to be a good place and into an even more wonderful one; I created the valley in between by my own stubbornness.

God doesn’t align his will with ours; we must submit our will to his.  His will is often vastly different than we imagine it to be.  I thought I was supposed to go one way, and I was very wrong.  In fighting the current of God’s will and trying to swim upstream towards what I wanted, I caused myself a world of pain and heartache much more severe than if I had simply turned towards the light and floated in the direction God wanted me to go.  We must remember the words Paul used to open the twelfth chapter of Romans: “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”  When we offer our bodies, minds, and hearts to God in worship, He will show us His will—and His will is infinitely better than ours!