God’s Will Is Outside Time

Between John’s post yesterday and Martha’s devotional this morning, I can’t escape the absolute necessity of knowing and obeying the will of God. God’s will is the key, always.

I regularly write about my “stumbles” and “struggles” but they’re really all the same struggle: surrender to the will of God and obey it. When my struggle lasts several days, it’s because I’m looking for a way around God’s will. I’m trying to negotiate the non-negotiable. “I’ll serve you, God, but not that way. Please not that way!”

God’s Will Frozen in Time

Do you know what’s amazing about the will of God? It is completely unhampered by the passage of time! God says, “Stop wearing black.” (Just an example!) And I adore wearing black, so I say to God, “Nope, can’t do it, won’t do it, that’s just too much!” Immediately, my spiritual life stops. Though time keeps passing and my world keeps spinning, my relationship with the Lord is frozen at the moment of my ‘No’ to Him.

The struggle that ensues is a battle of wills, yes, but it’s much more than that. It’s my life slowly but surely falling apart because I’ve shut out the will of God with my ‘No.’ Now the answer to my every question is “Stop wearing black.”

• “God, I was invited to dinner by so-and-so. Do you want me to go?” “Stop wearing black.”
• “I’ve got a flat tire and no money to fix it. What do I do?” “Stop wearing black.”
• “Good morning, Lord!” “Stop wearing black.”

The only way out is for me to obey His will as He gave it to me. I am stuck, stuck, stuck until I move on the word He gave me, because that word is still there, unmoved by the passage of time, waiting to be carried out.

God’s Will is Waiting

I’ve talked to people who are genuinely bewildered about the will of God for them. They just can’t seem to hear it, and I wonder. Perhaps they don’t really want to know God’s will for them; that would certainly make it hard to hear! Or maybe God gave them His will and they said ‘No.’ Maybe His will for them is still waiting to be obeyed at the point in time when they shut it out, and their confusion is the rightful result of rebellion and disobedience.

It’s a new year! And this new year will be an adventure in pain and heartache if we try to navigate it apart from God’s will. As Martha said this morning, “It’s not possible to want God’s will and not know it. It’s just not possible.” If we want His will, we will have it. And if we want it and can’t find it, we know very well where to find it: waiting where we left it when we walked away.

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11 NKJV