SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2019
9:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Lord’s Purposes”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
5:17
Message of the
verse: “So then do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Let us begin by talking about the unwise believer. He will act foolishly in a manner where he
tries to function apart from what God’s will is for him, and this will
inevitably make him weak, frustrated, and also ineffective, in both his
personal life and also in his work for the Lord. There is only one cure for such foolishness
and that is to find and to follow what the will of God is for his life.
Now where do we find God’s basic will? Well the Lord has given it to us in His Word,
and it is here we find His perfect sufficient guidelines for knowing and doing
what it is that will please the Lord.
MacArthur states “But the ‘will’ of which Paul seems to be speaking here
is the Lord’s specific leading of individual believers. Although His plans and directions for each
believer are not found in Scripture, the general principles for understanding
them are there. God does not promise to
show us His will through visions, strange coincidences, or miracles. Nor does He play a divine guessing game with
us, seeing if we can somehow stumble onto His will like a small child finds an
egg at an Easter egg hunt. God’s deepest
desire for all of His children is that they know and obey His will, and He gives
us every possible help both to know and to obey it.”
It
should not come as a surprise that God’s will for our lives is first of all to
belong to Him through Jesus Christ. That
is first and primary will for every person is that he be saved and thus brought
into the family and the kingdom of God as seen in 1 Timothy 2:3-4: “3 This is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Next God’s will is that we all be Spirit-filled. If we look at the next verse in Ephesians we
read “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled
with the Spirit,”
1
Thessalonians 4:3 tells us more about being in God’s will: “3 For this is the will of God, your
sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;” now I
am not trying to speak lightly about the last part of this verse but what I am
looking at here is the sanctification of the believer being in the will of
God. Next we will enjoy His will through
proper submission to other men as seen in 1 Peter 2:13-15 “13 Submit yourselves
for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in
authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers
and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by
doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.” Hebrews 13:17 gives us the next way to be in
the will of God “17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep
watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with
joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”
Suffering
may be in the will of God and we know this by looking at all of those people
who are actually losing their lives for the cause of Christ each day in places
like Nigeria, the Central African Republic,
China, and also North Korea among some of the places in the world. “20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and
are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is
right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor
with God” (1 Peter 2:20). MacArthur
writes “God’s will culminate in believers’ giving thanks no matter what. ‘In everything give thanks; for this is God’s
will for you in Christ Jesus’ (1 Thess. 5:18).”
He
goes on to write “When a person is saved, sanctified, submissive, suffering and
thankful he is already in God’s will. ‘Delight
yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart’ (Ps.
37:4), David tells us. In other words,
when we are what God wants us to be, He is in control and our will is merged
with His will, and He therefore gives us the desires He has planted in our
hearts.” As I have stated in many SD’s
about God, in eternity past giving us works for us to do for the cause of
Christ, this seems to go along with this quote from John MacArthur.
When
we look back at Ephesians 5:15-17 we will find that our Lord Jesus Christ is
our supreme example for fulfilling the commands of these verses, as Christ always
functioned according to the divine principles establish by His Father as seen
in John 5:19 “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is
something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things
the Son also does in like manner.” Let
us also look at John 5:30 “30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I
hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but
the will of Him who sent Me.” Now as we
look in the gospels we find that Jesus knew that once He began His ministry
that it would be rather short as He stated on different occasions, and yet
Christ made the most of His time while on earth. I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that from
the very moment we first hear His voice in the Gospel of Luke where he stated
in 2:49 (KJV) “49 And he said unto them,
How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s
business?” And when we get to the end of
His life on earth Jesus stated “It is finished.” Doing His Father’s business was finished, as
He accomplished what it was that the Father sent Him to do. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent
Me, and to accomplish His word” (John 4:34).
Peter
writes “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also
with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from
sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of
men, but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:12).
John
MacArthur concludes “The words of David sum up the proper reaction to this
teaching: ‘I will sing of mercy and
judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.
I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way’ (Ps. 101:1-2 KJV).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Ever since I first became a believer I have
been looking at the subject of being in the will of the Lord. I have been to different places where this is
what they talk about and in most cases we are told some similar things that we
have looked at as far as being in the will of the Lord. This is, of course one of the most important
things that I as a believer can learn, as it is part of the sanctification
process that I am to go through. One
thing that I can say is that I will never arrive to be perfectly doing the
things that the Lord has for me to do, and what I mean is that I need to
continue to grow as Peter writes, which is the last thing that Peter wrote in
his last letter before he would be crucified upside down for the cause of
Christ, and when a person is about to die, and he knows it then what he has to
say should be listened to. “18 but grow
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be
the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” I am assured that by following this verse
that I will be in the will of the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Humility is
certainly in the will of the Lord, something He is teaching me, and will
continue to teach me.
The Scripture verses that go with
yesterday’s quotation from D. L. Moody is from Proverbs 3:3-4 “Don’t lose your
grip on love and loyalty. Tie them
around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. Earn a reputation for living well in God’s
eyes and the eyes of people.”
6/26/2019 10:31 AM
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