Knowing God's Will

The life and ministry of Paul illustrates a third requirement for living strategically to the glory of God.

This final installment of the series is an "appendix" to the discussion.  Primarily, this is a reminder of four key attitudes that we must maintain as we wait for God's decretive will to unfold in our lives.

Knowing God's will is important to true believers.  We want to make decisions that are right and good.  But what is going on when we are pursuing God's will, and yet we are suffering?

The worldly values of this age are constantly seeking to press us into their mold.  We are responsible, as God's people, to resist this worldly influence so that we are not conformed to it.

Christians groan in the many trials of life. But there is someone else groaning as well: the Holy Spirit who lives inside us. When we pray for ourselves or for others, the Holy Spirit is also praying to God the Father, without words, in a way that is in total agreement with the will of God for the situation that burdens us. That is a tremendous encouragement due to our own inability to always know the mind of God.

In an unusual aside from his discussion on marriage and singleness, the Apostle Paul provides one of the most significant summaries of the way Christians should live found anywhere in Scripture. Specifically, this passage presents five radical perspectives every believer should have in order to live in a way that pleases God.

Living faithfully for the Lord is what ultimately makes our lives meaningful. At the conclusion of this long chapter on Christ’s resurrection, we find that God not only expects us to persevere in serving Him as long as we live, but He promises that our labor in His name will not be in vain.

After five-plus chapters of laying a doctrinal foundation, we finally come to some commands. These commands provide two further facts about God's perspective on the way we live and His expectations of our holiness.

We find that enjoying life and obeying God go hand-in-hand. We are to seek to enjoy life but to be wise. We are not to do something sinful or foolish. We will give an account.

We can't just live by our senses or by what the majority says. We must "fly by the instruments." Solomon gives us wisdom to live by so that our lives have substance and significance.

Epaphras was a big-hearted leader of a tiny house church in Colosse. This church had been overflowing with the joy of the fullness of Christ -- but a desolating philosophy endangered to beguile them away from their fullness. Paul sums up his letter with a reminder that everything flows from the fact that Christ is the One who fills everything in every way -- and that we, too, can know this fullness in our own hearts.

Solomon's approach is neither to abolish nor to explain life's anomalies, but to enable a person to live with them. He presents three facts about wisdom that help us understand its great benefit to us, and to help us see how it works its way out practically in our lives.

As Paul discusses the master/slave relationship in his time, he gives us timeless principles that go beyond just that. We find a reminder of what our entire purpose in life is. Are you driven by a passionate desire to glorify Jesus Christ in all areas of your life?

Most people have the idea that the world is the one that gives enjoyment and God is the One who clubs us when we have fun -- but, in reality, it's the other way around. Purpose cannot be found in any one of the good things found in the world. Life is empty without God.

How do we live our lives in such a way as to please God? This section of Scripture lets us know that our effectiveness is dependent upon certain important components.

An attitude of sacrifice and a trust in God's promises set the Philippians apart as a church with a big heart.