God's Will - by Linda Chicquette

Have you ever wondered what God's will is for you? The wonderful revelation is that it isn't difficult to know.  Jesus told us in John 6:40, "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." This word 'behold' in this case doesn't only have the meaning of seeing with the eyes but also can mean to discern, experience, or perceive. That means that God's will for all of us who have put our trust in Him is eternal life.

How is this manifest in our lives here? 1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us "In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." We are not told to give thanks for the things we consider as 'good', but for those of us in Christ Jesus, His will is for us to give thanks in everything. Even Job knew this truth. In Job 1:21 he said, "..the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away: blessed be the name of the LORD." Again in Job 2:10, Job said..."shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his mouth." We have the confirmation here that Job was speaking the truth.

Sometimes we forget that Satan has no power over us who trust in the living GOD. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 tells us"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away: behold all things are become new. And all things are of GOD, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation:" Note the present tense of the verbs. All things are new for us. We are no longer dealing with the 'old man' or as some like to call it the 'sinful nature'. We are new creatures we have the nature of Jesus Christ. He IS our life, not He 'will be' our life. For us ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, not just the things we think of as 'good' but ALL things. There is no way for sin to creep into our lives unless we stop trusting that Jesus IS our life. No wonder we are to be thankful in all things, this includes even COVID 19. We will be thanking God even for this and for every other thing in our lives because He is our life and He is in the process of reconciling all things to Himself. We have no reason to worry, fear, or be anxious. He loves us more than we can ever even imagine. He is purposing everything that is happening to us. We can rejoice in the LORD!