0707 FINDING GOD’S WILL, PART 2

JULY 7 = 1 THESSALONIANS 4

FINDING GOD’S WILL, PART TWO

I feel like I’m still looking to find the center of God’s will for me. You know, where all my giftings and interests come together, and I don’t feel the need to question whether I am doing the right thing or not. I mean, not just doing God’s will in the general sense, but being in the very center of it, with the right job, living in the right place, finding the right partner, being in the right church. Yeah, I just want to be in the center of His will for me.

Have you ever heard someone say a wish like that? Have you ever wished it yourself? It is a noble goal, and seems like the right thing to pursue. And I have felt like I am there at times in my own life. But sooner or later, seasons change and circumstances shift, and what had once felt like the center of God’s will now seems like the outer perimeter.

What if God directly answered our wish to know the center of His will? I have good news! He tells us in specifics in chapter 4. Ready?

In chapter 3, we ended with God doing this work in each of us: May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God. In chapter 4 here, Paul picks up with the theme of God’s will and provides several specific examples of the center of God’s will for you and me.

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.”

As a young man, I was surprised to see “God’s will” and “learn how to control your own body” to be connected. But they are connected completely, so that if we truly want to be in the center of God’s will, we will learn to be sexually pure. That’s right. It all starts here, you might say.

God’s will:

• Be sanctified. This word means holy. Set apart for God. Not common or sensual or worldly or disrespectful. Respect God, who made you in His image.

• Avoid sexual immorality. This was the shocker for me: Want to know God’s will? Avoid sexual immorality. That’s not “just” law; it is God’s WILL for you.

• Learn how to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable. In case we didn’t get the message clearly by points 1 and 2 above, Paul further clarifies: 

• No one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. To be sanctified, to abstain from sexual immorality, means for us to learn how to behave in this world without becoming a part of it.

• Not to be impure, but to live a holy life. Again, holy means something that is set apart, used only for the honorable intended purpose, and never for depraved fulfillment of sexual pleasure or other such sins.

So, it is of utmost importance that we take these words of Paul seriously. God wants something. He wills these sentences to speak to our hearts and steer our actions. We are to walk in purity and we are to honor others by our own purity. 

This is God’s will for us all, you might say. Paul did.  Amen.