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God’s Will for Your Life: Walking in Wisdom and Daily Obedience
By Jacob Way
This question, “What is God’s Will?” has followed me around for most of my life. I grew up wondering and praying for God to give me a roadmap, a bulleted list of life decisions so that I would know what I needed to do. It’s clear when we examine our forefathers of the faith what they were made for. David to be King of Israel, Matthew to be an apostle, and Paul to spread the Gospel to the Gentile world. But what is God’s will for my life? I wanted to have the benefits of hindsight before I started the journey.
The more I have matured, by God’s grace, I see that the desire to know God’s will is both more complex and more straightforward than I initially thought. The complex aspect of God’s will for our life involves God using us to bring about the advancement of His kingdom. This involves God using us in ways we are literally unable to calculate. How do you measure your influence on a friend or family member? What effects is God bringing about from your prayers? Did David realize the impact of his writing in the Psalms? Did he know his Savior would quote them on the cross?
How would you measure the impact of the influential people in your life? It is simply impossible for us to know the big picture, and that’s ok. In fact, often, in Scripture, God doesn’t give the big picture; He doesn’t give the details to the master plan. He didn’t even tell David he would be king—He just watched over him as he learned to be a shepherd. And even when David ascended to the throne, he was ignorant of his influence. Jesus didn’t tell Matthew that he would later write an account of Jesus’ ministry and be used to strengthen the early Church. All Jesus said was, “Follow me.” The complexity is hidden behind a simple command.
But while the macro view of God’s will for our life remains hidden to us, God clearly gives us the day-to-day answer to what His will is for our lives. I could summarize God’s micro will for your life very simply. We see in Ephesians 2:10 that all Christians are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared for us in advance to do.” This means that God has created you to do millions of things that only you can do. In this way, you are used to play a part in God’s grand plan. In the Spirit’s strength and under His leadership, we are to go about each day to do the things that please God and stop doing the things that displease Him. Paul gives an exhaustive list both from last week’s section and this week. We are to refrain from coarse joking, obscenities, and foolish talk. We are also not to get drunk because not only is drunkenness a sin, but it leads to all other types of sin (Ephesians 5:18).
Instead, we are to “be filled with the Spirit” and “sing and make music in our hearts to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18–19). Use your thoughts, words, and deeds to glorify God. This is a helpful way to see that God’s will for our lives is very attainable and comprehensible. God’s will for you is simply for you to do the things that please Him and don’t do the things that grieve Him.
No one is without excuse. We cannot plead ignorance on knowing God’s will for our life. In fact, God has so clearly revealed His will to us in this way that Paul says, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Ephesians 5:17). So, wisdom is knowing God’s will for your life coupled with doing God’s will for your life. We are given countless opportunities throughout the day to be wise or be foolish. Again, we are not earning salvation—we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. But once we are saved, we continue to become more like Jesus, and in this way, we live out our calling. We can choose to walk in darkness and sin or walk in the light and glorify God. But we cannot say that we don’t know His will for our lives.
So let us all first stop and thank Him for the privilege of having significance to be used in God’s great work of redemption. Then, let us be wise and not foolish and do God’s will for our lives.
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Jacob is a committed husband, father, and teacher. He has taught social studies for over a decade in the US and internationally. He has written Right Before the Bell: A Teacher’s Weekly Devotional to help teachers use God’s Word to shape their classrooms. He is also the author of Hope to Win the War: How Pornography Enslaves and the Truth Frees. He loves reading, watching movies, hiking, and eating great food. Jacob also has the privilege of serving as an elder in his local church, and one of his greatest desires is to see people become all that God made them to be. He lives and teaches overseas with his wife and two children.
