Live in God's WillSample

                              Part One: What is God’s Will for Us to Become?

DAY 1: Live in God’s will by becoming fully pleasing to Him. 

We are on this journey to discover what the Bible says about living in God’s will. It is not about where we should live, or what career to pursue, or even who to marry. It is about learning how to live a life worthy of the Lord. We are in God’s will when what we think, say, and do are pleasing to Him. He wants our minds, souls, and bodies to be more like Him. This is a life-long process. The more we learn about God through being in the Word, the more we can walk with Him in His will. 

God’s will for us is to be intentional in our growth and transformation. He does not want us to be apathetic, complacent, or lazy when it comes to our character growth. When we are passive about our growth, we give in to temptation because we just don’t care. When we are proactive about our growth, we see temptations as opportunities to strengthen our character, which weakens the pulls of the flesh. Every choice we make, we must evaluate if it honors the Lord. How will we spend our time? Would He be pleased with our words, actions, and choices? If not, we know it is not the will of the Lord. It’s as simple as that. 

How can we walk in a manner that is pleasing to Him? God wants us to bear fruit in our lives. That fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). We should evaluate daily which areas we need to grow in, take them to the Lord in prayer, and ask Him for help to truly live out these character traits. This is intentional character development. To be transformed into Christ’s image, we must ask the Holy Spirit to empower us with His strength. We cannot be good on our own. We cannot overcome our flesh with only sheer determination. 

God will help us grow our character by living in Biblical community. We need safe people to share our struggles with so that they can pray for us, encourage us, and hold us accountable to make choices that are fully pleasing to Him. The Bible encourages us to have godly counselors, men and women we respect who know the Word of God and can show us if we are making wise choices. 

Here are some questions we can think through to see if we are genuinely making decisions that go according to the knowledge of God’s will: 

· How will this affect God? Will it bring Him glory? Is this a decision Jesus would make? Will I be proud of this decision when I stand before God one day?

· How will this affect others? Would I want this done to me? Will this decision appear wrong to someone, even if it’s not a sin? Will this cause someone to struggle spiritually? 

· How will this affect who I am? Could this lead me into habitual sin? Can I do this with confidence that it’s right? Am I breaking any previous commitments?

PRAYER:

Lord, please give me spiritual wisdom and understanding so that I can live a life fully pleasing to You. I confess where I have made decisions that You would not be proud of, decisions that have negatively affected others, and choices that have harmed me. May Your Spirit empower me to grow in my character. Help me to become more like You in how I make decisions in life. Amen.