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God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/3/2009 11:58:53 AM
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JimSutton
Posts: 41
Joined: 8/13/2009
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Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4, NKJV)
I've given a lot of attention to knowing God's will for my life since first becoming a believer. And I've been surprised more than once to discover that God wanted me, in this or that circumstance, to decide for myself what I really wanted. This summer I spent considerable time trying to teach a grandchild to speak up and make their own choices clearly known more often.
Obviously, in every life there is a time to do the "right thing," as in whatever is required by duty or what fits within a budget or what might be most fair to others, and also a time to simply make up our minds what we really want. This is not only true in daily life at home, work or school, it is very important in our spiritual journey.
God gifts each of us, for example, with certain specific abilities and strengths, and I believe He has a certain work or ministry in mind when doing so. But part of the process of determining the right career or calling is discovering what gets us excited, what turns on the inner engines, what challenges us and compels us forward. Desire is an important part of the "big picture" for any Christian's life.
Being human, we have many kinds of desires, and some of them are obviously not good for us or for the larger community. Yet inner drive and desire is also part of the way God draws us to Himself, and to His good and perfect will for our lives. There is a dynamic tension in our hearts as desire for one thing, or one direction in life pulls against desires for other things. In the end, we must always make choices. Some of those choices are difficult, not clearly good or bad, right or wrong. At least not clearly recognized until later.
How do you work this out in your life? Or do you see the whole experience of walking with Christ in a completely different way?
_____________________________
Jim Sutton
www.GospelGifs.com
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/3/2009 12:53:33 PM
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cposey
Posts: 302
Joined: 8/20/2009
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As far as my own walk I have always thought this verse meant that if I am seeking after God's heart, then "my desires" will line up with His. So I ultimately will desire nothing for myself and only desire that which pleases God.
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/3/2009 2:07:28 PM
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JimSutton
Posts: 41
Joined: 8/13/2009
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quote:
ORIGINAL: cposey
As far as my own walk I have always thought this verse meant that if I am seeking after God's heart, then "my desires" will line up with His. So I ultimately will desire nothing for myself and only desire that which pleases God.
Yes, that's a great view to have, and an excellent way to see the verse. I believe that is one meaning for it. But the other side is also true, even though some of the contemporary TV preaching/teaching may compel many Bible-believing Christians to ignore it.
The fact is, Jesus told us to ask for things, to express our desires to God in prayer, and to believe when we prayed that God would grant what we asked for. It is Jesus Himself who tells us to keep asking, seeking, and knocking, expecting an answer.
I think the only right way to begin praying about anything is to first seek to know God's will, asking the Lord to help our brains and hearts to get the message. Sometimes, there really is only one right way to go, and a passage of Scripture or a wise comment by a spiritual friend will help make that clear. At other times, though, the Lord seems to leave it up to us.
At those times, even after trying our best to know the heart and mind of God, we still have difficult choices to make. And then we just have to walk forward by faith, trusting God to correct us if we are not making the very best choice.
I am always slow to trust myself. While I may be very sincere, I am still human. I encounter very religious people all the time who are convinced they know God's will. Some of these people are in "Christian" cults that oppose my understanding of God and Jesus Christ. Others do not even believe that Jesus is more than a great teacher. I am no better than any of these people, no wiser, no more pure of heart. What makes my sincerity better than theirs? Only God's kindness sets me apart as a follower of Jesus Christ. And only God's kindness can keep me from making wrong choices.
Maybe I worry too much about it. (Just a product of earlier Christian training?) I suppose anyone can apply the passage to their lives, regardless of their religious background. Anyone who truly wants to find God's will in a particular area of life will be helped by the Lord if they turn it over to Him, and are willing to follow His direction. So maybe I don't have to be perfectly orthodox in all my beliefs and theologically pure to get genuine help from God. Otherwise, how would any of us ever come to "find our way" to Christ at all?
_____________________________
Jim Sutton
www.GospelGifs.com
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/3/2009 9:04:32 PM
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starcraft
Posts: 58
Joined: 4/2/2009
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I agree with you Jim.
I believe we bring honor and glory to the creator when we take what he has given us and do as much with it as we possibly can. Jesus taught this in his parables so I assume it must be God's will. What are we to do? I believe we are to follow our talents and desires (he gave them to us), to accomplish anything good, the details are left to us. Bill Hybels discusses this in his book 'Holy Discontent'. Follow your God given desires to right a wrong, or an injustice, or to bring about goodness in the lives of others.
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/3/2009 9:37:12 PM
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RavensDesires
Posts: 105
Joined: 8/17/2009
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I have never known God's will for my life. I have always prayed about things and never received a clear answer. Therefore, I have made many mistakes and have paid dearly for them. I often wondered afterward why God didn't show me the right or wrong of the matter, but He didn't. I didn't know they were bad choices until afterward.
I envy people who testify that God leads them through everything they do - every choice and decision - every move of their life. Sometimes I wonder why I don't get led like that and then I decided that God wants me to walk by Faith. He gives us free choice. If He told us everything to do or not to do, we wouldn't have free will, would we?
I'm hanging on and believing and will be glad when my race is over.
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/3/2009 9:53:40 PM
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Redjasper
Posts: 344
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quote:
I have always thought this verse meant that if I am seeking after God's heart, then "my desires" will line up with His.
Spot on.
quote:
I have always prayed about things
What do you mean by 'things'?
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/4/2009 2:24:51 AM
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JimSutton
Posts: 41
Joined: 8/13/2009
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Excellent points, all.
quote:
ORIGINAL: wawhoo73112
I think that when Paul speaks of being "content" in whatever state he finds himself, he speaks of the same thing.
For "desire" can EASILY lead a human instead of God.
But it is when we are well aware of our own desires, yet we put them aside, surrendering "our will" to the Father and His timing and His "desire" for us, THIS is when we shall be content in any state we find ourselves....
It is also the very place where God often blesses us with the very thing we have given over to HIS keeping  ...because our heart is right with Him, and the 'desire" is no longer an idol between us and Him 
IMO - Bob~
Yes. Learning to commit the cares of my life to God is something the Lord began teaching way before I really knew Him, and it is a lesson I am still learning. The Bible makes it very clear, in both Testaments that whatever is in God's hand cannot be taken out. Yet I still occasionally waste time worrying over things, for days at a time, that should simply be committed to the Lord.
quote:
ORIGINAL: starcraft
I agree with you Jim.
I believe we bring honor and glory to the creator when we take what he has given us and do as much with it as we possibly can. Jesus taught this in his parables so I assume it must be God's will. What are we to do? I believe we are to follow our talents and desires (he gave them to us), to accomplish anything good, the details are left to us. Bill Hybels discusses this in his book 'Holy Discontent'. Follow your God given desires to right a wrong, or an injustice, or to bring about goodness in the lives of others.
Amen. In my eagerness, at times, to be spiritual, I forget that God has already supplied me with a few awesome miracles that can be used in many situations. He gave me a brain that is capable of not only handling the administration, growth and maintenance of my body (an incredible task by any estimation), but also of solving many problems facing me each day. Sometimes I just need to give a little thought to what I'm doing. Another astonishing miracle and gift of God is a human body capable of interacting with the physical universe. I can stand and walk, speak to others, see many of the things that exist around me, smell, hear, touch and handle things. Astonishing gifts, when we start to really think about it.
God has already supplied each of us with much of what we will ever need to live this life. With my hands, I can build a chair, paint a picture, pick up a rabbit, bring food to my mouth, write a letter, balance a stick on the end of my finger, and many other things. I can use what I have to learn new things, earn a living, help my neighbors, change and shape my immediate environment, listen to masterpieces, enjoy flowers, wonder at the galaxies in space, write a story, sing a song ... almost anything that enters my mind. Awesome gifts, and truly miracles, so far as I'm concerned.
quote:
ORIGINAL: RavensDesires
I have never known God's will for my life. I have always prayed about things and never received a clear answer. Therefore, I have made many mistakes and have paid dearly for them. I often wondered afterward why God didn't show me the right or wrong of the matter, but He didn't. I didn't know they were bad choices until afterward.
I envy people who testify that God leads them through everything they do - every choice and decision - every move of their life. Sometimes I wonder why I don't get led like that and then I decided that God wants me to walk by Faith. He gives us free choice. If He told us everything to do or not to do, we wouldn't have free will, would we?
I'm hanging on and believing and will be glad when my race is over.
Thank you for sharing that insight. I know it isn't funny, but I almost have to laugh. You sound so much like me. God has not hidden Himself in my case, but I still have made a lot more poor choices than good ones. If a thing can be done wrong, then I can just about guarantee you that I will try all the wrong ways first (usually several times). I don't laugh when that happens. But later, looking back, I always have to.
I agree that God calls us forward, and life itself demands we take some kind of step, often when we simply don't know the best thing to do. And we may find that the Lord seems to just be letting us go wrong. But I really believe that in all such times our Father is right there with us, keeping real evil at a distance, watching over our every step. He loves us with a love we cannot fully grasp. He teaches us in many circumstances of life, and some of the lessons can seem bitterly hard at the time.
God has a purpose (a good one) for every bitter experience, every frustrating step, every moment of loneliness. I have seen many good days in my life, and a great many days that did not seem very good to me at all. Looking back, I would not trade any of them for all the riches of this world. I needed every lesson, every wrong step, every correction.
God is good. God is love. God really, really, REALLY cares about us in a way we cannot fathom. Not one thing comes into our lives but for good. Most of the good that is to come will not be seen in this lifetime. This is not the place of rewards, although we do experience many blessings here. But one day, when we are in our Father's house, we will rejoice and laugh and sing God's praises over the very things that we hate so much now. And in that eternal day, we will not be sorry for anything that seemed to go wrong here. Not one thing.
_____________________________
Jim Sutton
www.GospelGifs.com
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/4/2009 3:19:43 PM
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Liveloved
Posts: 1813
Status: offline
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quote:
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4, NKJV)
Jim,
This verse (and the psalm from which it comes) are favorites of mine. Although if you listen to me long enough, you will eventually realize almost every word God speaks is a favorite of mine.  And what I just shared about myself is at the heart of this verse. By delighting in the Lord, I am caring for myself, loving myself in all the right ways and that is the ultimate desire of my heart. And He's given it to me.
quote:
I've given a lot of attention to knowing God's will for my life since first becoming a believer. And I've been surprised more than once to discover that God wanted me, in this or that circumstance, to decide for myself what I really wanted. This summer I spent considerable time trying to teach a grandchild to speak up and make their own choices clearly known more often.
Did you know that 'knowing God's will' is the most popular topic among Christians? If you offer a seminar, they will come. So attending to God's will for your life is the pursuit of many. But then we come to that awesome realization that He wants us to choose. Yes, our awesome God does not want little robots lined up performing the functions they were created to perform. Instead He wants us to use the minds He gave us and to make choices that reflect our uniqueness, all the while acknowledging and living in vital relationship with Him. What an awesome God we serve!
quote:
Obviously, in every life there is a time to do the "right thing," as in whatever is required by duty or what fits within a budget or what might be most fair to others, and also a time to simply make up our minds what we really want. This is not only true in daily life at home, work or school, it is very important in our spiritual journey.
God gifts each of us, for example, with certain specific abilities and strengths, and I believe He has a certain work or ministry in mind when doing so. But part of the process of determining the right career or calling is discovering what gets us excited, what turns on the inner engines, what challenges us and compels us forward. Desire is an important part of the "big picture" for any Christian's life.
Being human, we have many kinds of desires, and some of them are obviously not good for us or for the larger community. Yet inner drive and desire is also part of the way God draws us to Himself, and to His good and perfect will for our lives. There is a dynamic tension in our hearts as desire for one thing, or one direction in life pulls against desires for other things. In the end, we must always make choices. Some of those choices are difficult, not clearly good or bad, right or wrong. At least not clearly recognized until later.
I love the way you have described this desire, drive and dynamic tension. Yes, it's all about discovery in relationship with Him and He takes great joy in watching us journey along. John 17:3 says And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. It is life eternal to know Him and we come to know Him more and more as we journey along. . . and, of course, we know ourselves in the process as well.
quote:
How do you work this out in your life? Or do you see the whole experience of walking with Christ in a completely different way?
And so I have learned (as you have learned) that it is a day by day, momemt by moment relationship lived. It's about loving Him. It's about believing every word He speaks. It's about His work in me and for me. And it's about living thankfully for all He has done, is doing, and yet will do for me. And it's about loving those He brings along my path.
quote:
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4, NKJV)
He has. He does. He will. \o/\o/\o/
_____________________________
Liveloved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/5/2009 7:22:39 AM
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JimSutton
Posts: 41
Joined: 8/13/2009
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Liveloved
By delighting in the Lord, I am caring for myself, loving myself in all the right ways and that is the ultimate desire of my heart. And He's given it to me.
Yes, our awesome God does not want little robots lined up performing the functions they were created to perform. Instead He wants us to use the minds He gave us and to make choices that reflect our uniqueness, all the while acknowledging and living in vital relationship with Him. What an awesome God we serve!
Yes, it's all about discovery in relationship with Him and He takes great joy in watching us journey along. John 17:3 says And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. It is life eternal to know Him and we come to know Him more and more as we journey along. . . and, of course, we know ourselves in the process as well.
And so I have learned (as you have learned) that it is a day by day, momemt by moment relationship lived. It's about loving Him. It's about believing every word He speaks. It's about His work in me and for me. And it's about living thankfully for all He has done, is doing, and yet will do for me. And it's about loving those He brings along my path.
quote:
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4, NKJV)
He has. He does. He will. \o/\o/\o/
Amen. The Lord is truly good, and this is what we cannot fully understand until we come to know Him. A great many folks believe there is a god, or gods or even a supreme and all-powerful God. But the Lord is not looking for personal confirmation and affirmation in having people believe merely that He exists. He wants to interact with us, and He wants to guide us into complete and fulfilled lives as mature individuals (although He may have given up on some of this in my case, since I resist maturity, it seems, at all levels).
When we first come to the Lord in genuine faith, obeying the gospel, there is often a certain amount of fear, as we realize, often for the first time, our true sinfulness and what we rightly deserve. I remember being drawn into the most strict forms of Christian faith, with a lot of emphasis on works and obedience. I needed this at the time, because the one thing I totally lacked was discipline.
Yet, as time went on, I was shocked to learn that God was not really looking for reasons to condemn me or throw me away. It took many years for me to begin to understand that God really and truly wanted to do good things for me — not because I had been so perfect or always obedient, but simply because He loved me and He takes delight in blessing everyone. (One reason God hates sin so much is that it acts as a wall between human beings and all the blessings He is wanting to heap upon us.)
We are challenged in the Scriptures to get to know God. He tells us that this is the good, the very best, and even that it is eternal life. Why does He say such things? It is because He loves us and He wants us to get to know and love Him. He has done all things in order that we may one day be with Him forever. That is God's heart, His one Hope, His joy.
_____________________________
Jim Sutton
www.GospelGifs.com
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/6/2009 9:57:26 AM
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Katie51
Posts: 227
Joined: 1/8/2009
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: RavensDesires
I have never known God's will for my life. I have always prayed about things and never received a clear answer. Therefore, I have made many mistakes and have paid dearly for them. I often wondered afterward why God didn't show me the right or wrong of the matter, but He didn't. I didn't know they were bad choices until afterward.
I envy people who testify that God leads them through everything they do - every choice and decision - every move of their life. Sometimes I wonder why I don't get led like that and then I decided that God wants me to walk by Faith. He gives us free choice. If He told us everything to do or not to do, we wouldn't have free will, would we?
I'm hanging on and believing and will be glad when my race is over.
Hi Ravens. I am somewhat like you. I seldom get a clear "leading" when I pray about things. I feel like I'm stumbling in the dark although I do believe He is with me and hears my prayers. For example I recently took a job that looked like an answered prayer. It was near my home, with benefits, seemed interesting...etc. It turned into a nightmare that i had to leave after just 1 month. It botched up the unemployment I had been receiving. It SEEMED like He had sent me a great job. Now...nothing. no job OR unemployment check. Still HE has provided for all my needs. I have a place to live , no debts, food, good family who helps me. So i think you are correct...He wants us to simply trust Him. I am standing on the Solid Rock. Let me add I see His protection over me in spite of the circumstances seeming to go wrong. The job was in a prison and I into a situation where I could have been seriously injured, yet I remained unharmed. I actually got locked up in a hall with inmates, some of whom are dangerous...without a prison guard. And I was an office clerk!! So He covered me with His hand. I see Him at work despite a lack of clear understanding. Blessings.
< Message edited by Katie51 -- 9/6/2009 10:03:48 AM >
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RE: God's perfect will and the desires of life - 9/7/2009 11:03:35 AM
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sunshine4God
Posts: 6436
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Sterling Ct.
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: WanderingLamb
Here is a good Scripture verse about God's will:
Romans 12: 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I gotta remember this scripture especailly lately. It is very helpful.
_____________________________
Matthew 5:16.
"Let your light so shine before men that they will see
your good deeds and glorify your Lord".
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1551456458&ref=profile.I finally joined!!
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