We hear a lot of talk in our society about God's will- especially as we draw closer to the November elections. We hear people saying things like "It is God's will that Obamacare will be overturned!" or "God told me I needed to run for office so that His will may be done in this country!"
So what exactly is God's will? Will in it's simplest sense is defined as a wish or desire. So therefore we can conclude that God's will makes up the sum of the wishes and desires for us, His people. Simple, right? On the surface, yes, but there is much more to it than that. I'm not going to claim to be an expert here, but I just want to share some thoughts I've had based on recent experiences, in order to hopefully help others to gain a deeper understanding of the phrase "God's will."
The first question that one must ask is "how do we know God's will?" The simple answer to this question is through prayer, and through the Bible- the sacred scriptures. The Sacred Scriptures reveal to us the things that God wants us to do (or not do) to be His people, so that we may serve Him in this life, in order to be happy with Him in Heaven in the next life. Prayer helps us to more fully enter into a relationship with God, so that we may come to know and develop a deeper understanding of what it is God wishes us to do in ALL aspects of our life. And yes, that does mean that you can pray about relationships, struggles with co-workers, problems you are having, and the like. Prayer is not just a memorized formula of texts that we recite until we are blue in the face with no real meaning or power behind the words- it is our one-on-one time with the God who loves us, and wants nothing more than for us to draw closer to Him, the source of true life and true happiness.
Secondly, we must understand that God's will is unchanging. This is a difficult concept to grasp, especially in today's progressive society that is always pushing for change. Man's ways are fickle, and are constantly changing, but God in his infinite wisdom has already ordained right and wrong from the beginning of time, and nothing that man says or does will make God change his mind. Yes, humans do have free will, and we can choose to go against God's will for us, but that does not mean that we have changed God's will.
We must also understand that we will often face ridicule for choosing to follow God's will- because God's ways are not the ways of this world. But there is a happiness that comes from following God's Will that cannot come from the things of this world. Because the number one thing that God desires is for us to be happy. And if we follow His will for us, and allow Him to guide us, we will come to know Happiness- maybe not in the ways that we would expect, but in ways that God knows are best for us.
