Gods Will

With everything that's been going on this week, I've been thinking about this whole issue about "God's Will".

If you read scripture, it's pretty evident what "God's Will" is. That all men would come to know Him and be saved. To love and follow Him. To love each other because He has first loved us. Pretty clear, huh?

Then, why is it that people are always like, "What is God's will for my life?". I think it's a cop-out question. I think people are uncertain of themselves, what they want to do or what they think they want to do, so turn to a metaphysical god for answer and direction. This is not to say that we should not make choices and persue things through prayer and petition.

In this day, it's really rare for God to directly speak to you. Sure, we look at our situation and our circumstances, different passages, and different events as God "speaking". The reality is that He is not. We are imbuing our own interpretations and our own thoughts and opinions on all these different things. This is especially true when it comes to scripture.

I was doing my devos this morning, and came across a verse about how God was going to bless Israel even though they had defiled themselves. Now, some people would read it and interpret it as: Despite our sin and our failures, God will still bless us because we are His people. Now that may be true, but you cannot imply that from the verse.

We are spiritual beings. As a result, we look for spiritual reasons for everything. Yes, God knows what's going to happen, He even plans for it. That doesn't mean that we don't have a part in our lives and our choices don't have real consequences. This may seem like a discussion on predestination vs free will, it isn't. The reality is that we have the ability to make choices. Some of these choices are good (morally) choices, others are bad (morally). If I choose to rape a girl, that I my choice and it is obviously a bad one. If I choose to have a ham sandwich instead of tuna today, it is neither good nor bad. Now if the tuna was bad, then choosing ham would have been a good (benefitial) choice.

We make choices based on past history, emotion, and our expectations. Past, present, future. The past we know and is constant; even though it continually gros. Emotion can be our chemical balance at the time or it can be our "gut". Expectations is what we think will happen as not only a result of our choice but also reactions to the choice that we make.

History gives us the benefit of wisdom and trends. Based on what has happened before, we can expect something in the future in the same vain. We don't only look at the trends and the effects that the past has on our decisions; history has an affect on who we are when we make the decisions. Because of a certain set of events, happenings direct and indirect, we have been formed to who we are; with our specific set of predispositions, prejudices, and opinions. History also comes with memories, which either beneficial or detrimental, will guide us on how we extrapolate the future.

The future is an undetermined set of threads and paths that we extrapolate from past experience and our history. Each of these threads are likely, some more likely than others. We project what can possibly happen to better gauge the direction the thread takes. There is a certain expectation to the choice that we make at this juncture in time. We don't only take into consideration what has happened to us, but what has happened to other people as well. We look at how others will react which, in turn, will affect the final out come of our decisions.

The present is interesting because it is a point. Much like the euclidian concept of the point, it has 0 width and 0 height. In the same way, the present has 0 length. The moment we try to pinpoint the present, it is in the past. The present acts as a fulcrum for these divergent ideas of a solidified past and an uncertain future.

God is in an interesting position because He can see all points in time all at once. Some even argue that he sees all the points that are possible, not just are. I propose that whether he knows all possibilities or just what is is irrelavent.

God also knows who we are intimately. He knows what we are predisposed to, what we enjoy, what we cherish, what we love. He knows how the different things in our lives affect the choices we make and how we live. Is it then so difficult to suppose that He can then use that data to project what are decisions will be? And since He knows all outcomes, He knows how to use it for the good of His glory?

We like certain things for certain reasons. Based on our upbringing and our experiences as children, neural pathways are defined and we formulate a certain world view. Our desires, some good (morally) some bad (morally) are ours.

If you look at the Biblical heroes, they all had to make a critical decisions. Abram, before becoming Abraham, had to choose to step out into the wilderness. Jacob had to decide that he would get away from his life of lies and deceit and become Israel and found a nation. Jesus had to choose to deny Satan and follow his father to the cross. All these, were decisions that God took and used for His glory.

When then, do we look so hard to find out what "God's Will" is for us? Why can't we look at everything that is in front of us. Filter it through our history and extrapolate a future and then make a decision. God will use you regardless of which path you take.