What is God’s will? What does He want from us? We cannot see
God. He created the universe. What does he want with us on an individual level?
With such a big world out there, how do we even matter in the grand scheme of
things? How can we please this great God? We can find the answer by looking at
Jesus’ sacrifice and his last commandment.
Galatians 5:5 AMP states, “For we, [not relying on the Law
but] through the [Holy] Spirit’s [help], by faith anticipate and wait for the blessing and good for which our righteousness and right standing with God [our conformity to His will in purpose,
thought, and action causes us] to
hope.”
Let’s break this verse down.
First, it states, ‘not relying on the Law,’ so, what’s the Law
mean? Basically, in the Old Testament there was a covenant. A list of rules that
were created for man to follow. Perhaps you remember the Ten Commandments?
Stone tablets, doom and lightening, very scary. So, we had these Laws and we
had to follow them. If we stepped out of line, God would smite us down, send
locusts, all that business. So, ‘not relying on the law’ means our
righteousness- right standing with God- is not defined by a set of rules.
Instead, it’s based on the Holy Spirit, which helpfully is
the next part of the verse, “through the [Holy] Spirit’s [help]. Help implies
we can’t do this on our own. We can’t take our salvation by force. We can’t
follow a set of Laws to claim a seat in Heaven. We can’t sit in the church and
say all the right words to get to Heaven. Instead, we need help from the Holy
Spirit.
The next section shows us how to get help from the Holy Spirit.
‘By faith anticipate and wait for the
blessing and good for which our
righteousness and right standing with
God [our conformity to His will in
purpose, thought, and action causes us] to
hope.
It takes faith to come in right standing with God. By
waiting, conforming, and praying, we get home from our circumstance. So, what
is God’s will? When Jesus came along, he abolished the old Law with his
sacrifice. In John 13:34-35 Jesus stated God’s will for our lives.
‘I give you a new commandment: that you should love one
another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. By this
shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you
keep showing love among yourselves.]
If we continue to the very next verse in Galatians 5:6 we
see, ‘For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed
and working through love.’
Circumcision and uncircumcision can be described as rules.
In the old covenant based on rules, one of the rules of being a follower of God
was to have a circumcision done at 8 days old. In the new covenant, God’s will
was to remove the rules that men operated under. Jesus purchased our freedom so
we could live a life of freedom without rules. Instead, we base our lives by
living through God’s will, to love one another.
So how do we show our love? We can find that defined as
well.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does
not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with
pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and
does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own
rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not
touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the
evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice
in unjustice and unrighteousness, but
rejoices when right and truth
prevail. Love bears up under anything and
everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its
hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without
weakening].
Love bares up anything and everything that comes. Not
suffering, not anxiety, not gossip or depression. God’s will on our lives is to
use love to bare up anything and everything that comes. I think I’ve got some
work to do.
