From Far Side To First StepSample

Tune in the Will of God

In September 1862, after the Union army lost the second Battle of Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln wrote these words of reflection on the will of God:

The will of God prevails. In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present Civil War, it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different form the purpose of either party.

President Lincoln understood that despite his desire that the Union army prevail and the war be quickly ended, God might have had a different plan in mind. His purposes are not always crystal clear to us, but His heart to be known by His children never wavers. Ever. Revealing Himself is His desire, and once discovering Him becomes “our” desire, the world tilts in a different direction and our pursuits begin to accommodate His purpose.

Mixed signals bring mixed messages. Bad reception results in bad theology. We float back and forth from the holy to the mundane. From the profane to the silly and from the eternal to the temporal—but we need a fixed point, a strong signal by which to tune our hearts. Our whims and wants and wishes are imperfect and fleeting, but His desires for us are steady and true. They are the fixed point by which we can recognize and understand everything else (Matthew 6:33). When we make Him our aim, He makes His aim clear. His signal never wavers; it plays clearly on the airwaves of our heart.

You can get Gregg Matte’s book by clicking on Finding God's Will .