“I thought that things were going O.K. lately and didn’t realize that I was doing something wrong but apparently I guess I have been.”
Have you thought that recently but then in your daily life you don’t seem to see God’s hand working in your life? You haven’t really seen God’s blessings apparent in your life or surrounding you? If you are a “child” (under 18 or still living with mom and dad), has it seemed that you aren’t getting things like you would like them?
I could take this any number of different directions and none of them would be off course. But, I will only try to stick to a couple of different avenues here.
I constantly hear people wanting to know how to find the will of God for their lives. I also hear some of the same people ask why they don’t seem to see God’s blessings in their lives.
What do I mean by God’s blessings? Some of us might think that God’s blessings would be just waking up in the morning and they would be correct, but people seem to take things like that for granted. Most people consider God’s blessings to be something like finding a $10 bill on the sidewalk or something out of the blue like that. Maybe it could be that your car broke down and a friend of yours fixed it for you without you having to incur major labor bills to get it fixed.
You see, when you are doing God’s will you will start to see some of these blessings pop up. You also must realize that when you are doing God’s will, you are also accumulating rewards and riches in heaven rather than on earth, so, you may not see some of your “blessings” here on earth, but eventually you will see them and going the extra mile to do God’s will will actually be worth it for you.
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
We find may places in scripture telling us what to do and what not to do. It spells things out pretty clearly what God wants us to do to receive the blessings for our actions. The above verse tells us that we are to think on, and eventually do, all of these things: True, Honest, Just, Pure, Lovely, Of Good Report, Virtuous and Worthy Of Praise — we are to “think on these things”.
How many times do we go through our days, one after the other, in our ruts, and we do the same things day after day… and everything we are doing (or at least most everything) is for us. It’s all about “ME”. We are all worried about ourselves and what affects us and our well being. If something goes against US then we will most likely not do it.
When was the last time you held a door open for someone behind you going into a fast food restaurant and let them go into the line in front of you? When was the last time you, when driving, let someone in in front of you when you didn’t really have to, instead of squeezing them out and not letting them in? After all, they were the ones that were merging, not you.
That is just a couple of examples of selfishness – and I could go on and on with many more examples, but I think you might have the idea that I am getting at here.
Many times in the Bible, we see that God is telling us that we should always put others first before ourselves.
Proverbs 18:24 “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly…” — Here we see that we are to act first before we get the reward. Here the action is to be friendly and the reward is to have friends.
Rarely is it that we get something before we do something to get it. We aren’t going to get paid for doing a job before we do the job.
The Bible lays it out for us: if we are to receive a blessing, we are first to act in a manner that is bless-able (I’m sure that isn’t a word, but it works). I have prepared a post that lists a whole bunch of Bible verses that spell out what IS the will of God, how to FIND the will of God and what to DO to be in the will of God. You can read it here.
I will give you a few references here that will give you an idea what I was talking about before – just so you know that this isn’t just me trying to get you to do something for ME but rather for your own well-being and for you to receive the blessings of God. Keep following me here:
1 Peter 3:17 “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.” — We are told here that we should do the right thing (“well doing”) even if it means that we suffer for it.
Mark 3:35 “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.“ — If we do the will of God as it is spelled out, we act as the family of Jesus. What better blessing can there be than that?
2 Corinthians 8:5 “And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.” — Putting themselves last, they first gave themselves to the Lord as is the will of God. If we do this, we will be more willing to put others before ourselves and therefore receive the blessing.
Ephesians 6:6 “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;” — If we do the will of God from the heart, with the right spirit, we are the servants of Christ. Because we are doing it in the right spirit, we are doing it for God rather than so that others can see us and we can receive the glory of men for it.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:” — Staying away from fornication is just another way to do the will of God.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” — It is the will of God that we give thanks – even if things don’t go the way that we want them to go. Remember that God has a master plan for our lives that we don’t know about. Every time that something goes “wrong”, it might be an inconvenience to us, but in reality, it prepares us to be able to serve Him in another area, another time. Give thanks, always!
Hebrews 10:36 “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” — Patience is required. God’s timing is perfect regardless what we think it should be or not, He knows what is best for us. He promises to take care of us. Give it to Him and let Him live out His promise.
1 Peter 2:15 “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:” — Remember that when you are doing the will of God, the other “men” are the ignorant and foolish ones – not you! Don’t worry about what they might say about you or do to you.
1 Peter 4:2 “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” — The “flesh” is the lusts of men — the desires to live in sin and the sin nature that we, as Christians, have sworn off — we should live out the rest of our lives doing the will of God.
1 Peter 4:19 “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” — We are God’s, as Christians. Therefore, as we suffer for doing the will of God we are to allow God to take care of us.
1 John 2:17 “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” — This goes with the previous verse: the things of the world are only temporary and also the pleasure that is derived from doing the things of the world and those things will pass away – they are only pleasurable in this life – but, if we do the will of God, we will live forever with God in heaven.
Matthew 20:16 “So the last shall be first, and the first last:” — As we go through our lives and live for ourselves, putting ourselves first, the Bible here indicates that the first (or those who live for themselves as being first) will be the last, but those who live for others (putting themselves after others – last) will end up being first. This can almost be a selfish thing to do. If you live for others for yourself, you will not receive a reward, but rather, if you live for others in the right spirit, then you will receive the reward and thus become first.
1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” — As we are living for others and in the right spirit, we deflect the glory from ourselves and onto God. He alone should receive the glory.
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” — I mentioned this verse earlier, but it comes into play here again, if we do all of these things and receive any “virtue” lavished onto ourselves, we are to give that virtue and any praise that might be given you, to Christ. This is similar to the wide receiver in a football game that receives a touchdown pass and kneels in the end zone and says a small prayer to show the fans that he is not taking the praise for the achievement but rather giving it to God. This is not a show-off thing for him to do to make him look better but rather he wants God to look better for allowing him and giving him the strength and ability to get that touchdown…
John 15:5 “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” — We can do NOTHING without the power of God — even if a person isn’t a Christian, God has created them and has given them the ability to do whatever we/they do. Without God, we are powerless!
I hope that with this list of verses, you can see that it is the will of God that we DO NOT live for ourselves, but rather for others. We need to put this acronym into action:
J — Jesus
O — Others
Y — You
If you do things in this order you will experience true JOY. It takes a lot of effort to do this and it really isn’t easy to start with, but once you start doing it, and in the right spirit, you will start seeing God’s blessings in your life and you will have more happiness than you have ever experienced before.
Teens reading this:
If you start living like this, your parents will think that an alien has taken their child. If you do things when they ask you to do them — “Delayed obedience is disobedience”; “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1, Colossians 3:20) — you will be doing the will of God in this regard and will notice that the air in your house will be much easier to breathe. Your parents will not believe it is you.
If you are a new Christian and start living like this, you will be living as God wants you to live and you will make your parents wonder what it is that makes the difference in your life and that will give you the opportunity to share the gospel with them as well. If they see no difference in you, you may never see them in heaven with you.
Christians Are Us 