More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
January 26 - February 11, 2020
Third, the conventional approach encourages a preoccupation with the future.
anxiety, after all, is simply living out the future before it gets here.
We don’t have to say “If the Lord wills” after every sentence, but it must be in our heads and hearts. We must live our lives believing that all of our plans and strategies are subject to the immutable will of God. Therefore, we should be humble in looking to the future because we don’t control it; God does. And we should be hopeful in looking to the future because God controls it, not us.
We must renounce our sinful desire to know the future and to be in control. We are not gods. We walk by faith, not by sight. We risk because God does not risk. We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence, not because the future is known to us but because it is known to God. And that’s all we need to know.
Worry about the future is not simply a character tic, it is the sin of unbelief, an indication that our hearts are not resting in the promises of God.
Fourth, the conventional approach undermines personal responsibility, accountability, and initiative.
But it was my decision. I was responsible for leaving. I chose. I decided. Yes, in the ultimate sense God already had it decided; that’s always true. But it would have been wrong for me to use God’s will as a way to remove my personal responsibility in the decision.
Just because you pray doesn’t mean your decisions are beyond objection.
We should choose some different terminology. “I prayed about it, and this seems best” or “It seems like the Lord is leading” would be a more helpful way of communicating our dependence on God.
We don’t want “God told me so” or “God laid it on my heart” or “It’s God’s will” or worse yet, “God told me that He wants you to do such and such” to be conversation stoppers that remove accountability in decision making.
God’s will is frequently employed as an excuse for difficult relationship decisions. This is the sort of accountability-dodging jargon we want to avoid. If you aren’t interested in dating or courtship or marriage or whatever, just say “No thanks” or “Not now,” but please don’t make God the bad guy in your relational messes.
If we ask, “How can I know the will of God?” we may be asking the wrong question. The Scriptures do not command us to find God’s will for most of life’s choices nor do we have any passage instructing on how it can be determined. Equally significant, the Christian community has never agreed on how God provides us with such special revelation. Yet we persist in searching for God’s will because decisions require thought and sap energy. We seek relief from the responsibility of decision-making and we feel less threatened by being passive rather than active when making important choices.3
Passivity is a plague among Christians. It’s not just that we don’t do anything; it’s that we feel spiritual for not doing anything.
Fifth, the conventional approach enslaves us in the chains of hopeless subjectivism.
I’m not saying subjective decisions are wrong. We make decisions based on a “feeling” all the time. But a subjective divining of God’s will should not be your decision-making process. It’s a dead-end street. How do you know when an open door is the Lord’s open door or the Devil tempting you? How do you know when a closed door is the Lord’s answer to your prayer or the Lord testing your steadfastness and resolve? These are the conundrums people get into when all their decisions come from subjective attempts to discern God’s will for their lives.
But why did the Lord give us brains and say so much about gaining wisdom if all we are really supposed to do is call on the Lord to tell us what to do in a thousand different nonmoral decisions?
It’s a great idea to pray for safety before saddling up the horse, but that doesn’t mean we need to wait for the “all clear” feeling in our bones before we head out.
Expecting God, through our subjective sense of things, to point the way for every decision we face, no matter how trivial, is not only impractical and unrealistic, it is a recipe for disappointment and false guilt. And that’s hardly what intimacy with Jesus should be all about.
Jesus does not want us to worry about the future. God knows what we need to live.
Worry and anxiety are not merely bad habits or idiosyncrasies. They are sinful fruits that blossom from the root of unbelief.
future as a personal quirk, but as evidence of little faith (v. 30). Worry and anxiety reflect our hearts’ distrust in the goodness and sovereignty of God. Worry is a spiritual issue and must be fought with faith.1
The decision to be in God’s will is not the choice between Memphis or Fargo or engineering or art; it’s the daily decision we face to seek God’s kingdom or ours, submit to His lordship or not, live according to His rules or our own.
Walking in God’s will means seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness.
First, God’s will is that we live holy, set-apart lives: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
But specific step-by-step instruction is not usually how God operates. His way is to show His holiness, declare us holy in Christ, then exhort us to grow in holiness in daily life. That’s God’s will of desire for you. And that’s His will of direction too.
He wants you to buy a house that will make you holy. If you marry, He wants you to get married so you can be holy. He wants you to have a job that will help you grow in holiness. Count on it: God’s will is always your sanctification. He has set you and me apart that we would grow to be more like Christ.
Second, we are to always rejoice, pray, and give thanks. Paul the apostle gives three straightforward commands: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Third, we are to know God’s will so we can bear fruit and know Him better. “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9).
“… so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:10–12).
Being filled with the knowledge of God’s will doesn’t mean getting divine messages about our summer plans and financial investments. It means we bear fruit, grow in our understanding of God, are strengthened with power unto patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father.
It’s about who we are, not wh...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Fourth, the will of God is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
And what is that will [of God]? Is it some specific, secret plan God has for us and wants us to spend days, weeks, even years discovering? Not at all. Rather it consists of a sober life, living in the power of the Holy Spirit, and offering praise and gratitude to God for his goodness. Paul’s main concern is about how believers conduct themselves in ordinary life.2
God’s will is your growth in Christlikeness.
God never assures us of health, success, or ease. But He promises us something even better: He promises to make us loving, pure, and humble like Christ. In short, God’s will is that you and I get happy and holy in Jesus.
for God’s sake start making some decisions in your life. Don’t wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God’s will, so just go out and do something.
Die to self. Live for Christ. And then do what you want, and go where you want, for God’s glory.
God’s will for your life is not very complicated. Obviously, living a Christlike life is hard work, and what following Jesus entails is not clear in every situation. But as an overarching principle, the will of God for your life is pretty straightforward: Be holy like Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God.
The will of God for our lives is that we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
The most important decision we face is the daily decision to live for Christ and die to self.
I believe God guides us in decision making. But note the key word there: “God guides us in decision making.” I did not say, “God expects us to discover His plan for our lives.” The difference between the two sentences is huge. We are not talking about how God reveals to us ahead of time every decision we must make in life. Yes it’s proper for Christians to pray to God and seek wisdom from God when we face decisions, even nonethical decisions. That’s not a bad idea. What is a bad idea is treating nonethical decisions as weightier than they really are because you think that there is One Right
...more
Statement 1: God guides us by His invisible providence at all times.
Statement 2: God can speak to His people in many different ways, guiding them with their conscious cooperation.
Statement 3: In these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son.
Statement 4: God continues to speak to us by His Son through His Spirit in the Scriptures.
The theology of Hebrews is rooted in the Old Testament. In fact, there are several mini-commentaries on Old Testament texts: Psalm 2 in Hebrews 2, Psalm 110 in Hebrews 5–7, Jeremiah 31 in Hebrews 8–9, Psalm 40 in Hebrews 10, and Psalm 95 in Hebrews 3–4. In these two chapters (Hebrews 3 and 4), the author is warning against unbelief. And so the writer quotes from Psalm 95: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as [you did in the rebellion]” (vv. 7–8).
In Hebrews 3:7, the author writes, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,” and then he quotes from Psalm 95. Remarkably, this word of Scripture, written a thousand years prior, can be introduced with the words “the Holy Spirit says.” Scripture is not a dead letter. God not only has spoken in the Scriptures, but he continues to speak through the Scriptures. That’s the assumption behind Hebrews 3:7.
So the argument in Hebrews 1–4 goes like this: (1) God can speak in many ways. (2) In these last days, God has spoken by his Son. (3) God speaks to us by His Son through the Holy Spirit speaking by the living and active Word of God.
Statement 5: Apart from the Spirit working through Scripture, God does not promise to use any other means to guide us, nor should we expect him to.
But there are a couple of considerations that make me think these examples in Acts are not meant to be the normal pattern for our lives. First, it’s important to realize that these events of special revelation weren’t normal even for the apostles.
