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Singapore Moses
✿ God is never in haste because all things are under His sovereign control. This knowledge will keep us from panicking. ✿ Abraham's impatience brought forth Ishmael. The perfect will of God therefore gave way to His permissive will. Till today the descendants of Ishmael are wild against the chosen people of God (Gen 16:11,12). It is folly to expect instant results just because we walk in the will of God. A "little while" in divine economy may mean anything between one day and one thousand years. Once we know what we are doing is the perfect will of God, we must stay put — "living by faith" (Heb 10:38). We must not bail ourselves out by means of our resources. God allows crises in our lives not to break us, but to make us; not to destroy us but to develop us. He is out to improve the quality of our lives. Today is World Standards Day! ✿ Tucked in the Faith Chapter of Hebrews is an illustrated report of the godly women of old: "Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Heb 11:35). Our sickly modern theology has taught us that healing alone is blessing. But what about the blessedness of death that ushers us into the literal presence of God? Just because we walk in obedience to the Lord, everything will not become clear to us. Questions may abound, but no doubts! ✿ While we should not go ahead of God due to impatience, we must also not lag behind due to indolence. Why would God reveal His will to a slothful man who will do nothing about it? Apostle Paul calls slothfulness as foolishness. According to him, only those who redeem the time are wise enough to understand the will of God (Eph 5:15-17). ✿ When the apostles were busy with reaching every possible place with the Gospel, they were forbidden to preach the Word in Asia. When they tried to go into Bithynia, the Holy Spirit would not permit them there also. But they kept going and ended up in Macedonia where they got their first European convert! It is always difficult to turn the steering wheel of a parked car! "Only in returning to Me and waiting for Me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength" (Isa 30:15)
Tim Maas
I believe that God does have a specific will for each of us, but it is not an unalterable or inevitable state. People still have a (fallen) free will of their own through which they can make choices that either work with or against God's will. (Jesus would not have told us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" if God's will could not be frustrated or impeded in this life through the working of the world, our flesh, and the devil.) An individual finding God's intended will is contingent upon the person actively seeking that will; being thoroughly grounded in God's nature and commands through study of the Bible; being continually sensitive to the ways in which God is speaking through events, circumstances, and choices in the person's life; communicating with God in prayer; and yielding to God's will, even if it seems from a human standpoint to be difficult or counter to "natural" inclinations. Given the above conditions, I believe that a person will be able to clearly see (especially in retrospect) the working of God in his or her life to achieve the state that God intended.
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