Matching Our Will With God’s Will

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 1:11-12

There is a point in every person’s life at which we must make a decision about life. Or rather, there are many such points, but whenever we get to them, it feels like there cannot possibly be or have been a more important decision to make. And that is also true, for in that moment there is no more important decision save the one that must presently be made.

No specific examples of such decisions are needed, for as you read this expect that these points in your life, past, present, and future, will bring themselves to mind. When you think about these decisions, your mind runs over all the possible repercussions of the decision. In past decisions, you think of what has been, or might have been; in future decisions, what might yet be. You think of what your life could look like, of all that could change, because of a mere thought, a conclusion formulated in the inner workings of your conscious mind.

And yet even now we all are at one such point in my lives, and verily do we feel that no point before has held such significance, and our minds are filled with thoughts of the future unknown, we cannot help but think that this decision is not going to be the defining factor in that future, but rather a point from which a series of new decisions will be birthed. Deciding upon one thing is not going to transport us automatically to that destination which we envision past the door of this decision. It will, however, allow for us to make those decisions each day of our lives which will indeed bring us to that desired end.

There is no intention to downplay the importance of such big decisions in life as previously mentioned, but we need to caution ourselves against the danger of being caught up in the vision of where we want this decision to bring us and lose sight of the truly significant and difficult decisions that we must make tomorrow, and the day after, and each day forthcoming. These are the decisions that are going to carry us to the place, and the person, we want to be.

In this day, dream of who you want to be, and tomorrow you will still be you. But when you put a decision into practice an unending series of future decisions which will ultimately shape you into the person whom you have now decide you want to become, will take shape. Though your resolve may and will at times fail, learn from it and continue to move on becoming that person that is Christ-like for the praise of His glory.

So it is with great fervor and determination that we now dive into this decision. In prayer we ask the power of the Spirit of God, dwelling in us as the gift of Christ, will strengthen us to make the decisions that will complement, and not counteract, that decision which we now make—matching our will with God’s will. In prayer we seek to rely not on our willpower, but on Christ, and the knowledge that it is not only our will, but God’s, which we are now pursuing, and we acknowledge that it is by grace alone that the two now coincide.