How To Follow In God’s Will In Daily Life

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Oh, I’m fine, and I’m happy, and I’m blessed. I’ve just been talking to my blessed Lord about you and about me, asking him that somehow His truth and His love and His power might be packaged together in the words that are spoken during these few moments that we have to invest together in eternity. I trust everything’s alright at your house. If you’ve struck a rough day, look up and say, “Lord Jesus, see me through this one,” and he will. I promise you. Days can’t always be coming up roses. Some days are full of disappointments, and everything seems to happen at once. Troubles come in clusters, don’t they? Even the insurance companies say that accidents come in clusters. I don’t know why that is, but they do. So if you’re in one of those cluster days where everything seems to be going wrong, look up and say, “Lord, I’m yours. See me through this one,” and He will.

God’s plan is for you always to triumph in Christ, and make manifest by you the perfume of His knowledge in every place. Let Him do that for you today. Well, this is your good friend, Bob Cook, and the corny greeting of, “How in the world are you?” I suppose established that for you long since. And we’re together in the Word of God in the third chapter of First Peter. We were talking about the will of God, how to know and do the will of God. I gave you some Scripture verses that pertain to that, and then we began thinking about how actually to tie it down in your own life. Make sure that the Lord Jesus is Lord of your life, that you really want God’s will.

I remember the scene in the restaurant years ago, when our middle daughter, Marilyn, was just perhaps two or three, and we were there for a Sunday dinner. I went to this particular coffee shop which was located in a hotel because I knew the owner, and he always treated us extra nice for some reason or other, gave me an extra large helping of stuff. Of course, that pleased me. But there we were, sitting around the table, and they had great big menus. The smaller the restaurant, the larger the menu, generally. [chuckle] So these great, big menus, and I’m feeling mischievous. I tossed the menu over in front of Marilyn, a little tyke two or three years old, whatever it was. And I said, “What do you want, Dearie? Pick out what you want.” Well, this was just too much for her, and her little eyes almost fill up with tears, and moistened suspiciously. She looked up at me and she said, “Oh Papa, I just want what you want.”

I wanna tell you, she could have had the world with a pink ribbon around it at that minute. “I just want what you want.” Oh, your father, your Abba Father, your heavenly Father, listens for you to say, “I just want what you want.” You see, that’s what the psalmists prayed: “Unite my heart to fear thy name.” That’s what Jesus prayed: “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” That’s the start of knowing and doing the will of God, isn’t it? Oh yes. Then analyze the situation humanly. Analyze it humanly. Write out the pros and cons. Many of my mistaken decisions in life have been for lack of thinking through the facts.

See, God won’t do your homework for you. I told the young people at the college that through the years. God won’t do your homework for you. A red-hot prayer meeting on exam time will never take the place of having studied. God will not, in answer to prayer, help you remember something you did not first forget. So you have to do the homework. Analyze your situation, think about it. Then bring the results of that cogitation, bring the results of that hard work in thinking into the place of prayer, and talk it over with your heavenly Father. And the insights that you’ve gained through analyzing the situation, and then what comes to you in answer to prayer as the Holy Spirit guides your praying. Bible says, “He maketh intercession for us according to the will of God.” You could be sure when you’re praying in the spirit, that you’re praying according to the will of God.

I’ve had the experience of starting out to pray about a matter and getting nowhere, and then feeling convicted as the Spirit of God dealt with me, and starting to change my prayer, and then getting somewhere. Have you ever had that experience? The Holy Spirit will guide you in your praying, so that you’re praying according to the will of God. Indeed he will. Then there’s this matter of obedience. Now the behavioral psychologists say that behavior influences attitudes and feelings. And they have given the illustration of, for example, of a person standing on a railroad track. He sees the train approaching and jumps out of the way just in time, and then experiences the sensation of fear. Well, I never tried it actually. I always had sense enough to stay off the track. [chuckle]

But in any case, that’s the explanation that the behaviorist gives, that your feelings and your attitudes stem from what you do. Well now there is an element of truth to it. I don’t buy the whole package, but there is an element of truth to it. And you bring that shred of truth out over into this matter of the will of God, and you’ll find that your knowledge of and appreciation for God’s will is directly proportional to your willingness to obey it. You start obeying the will of God, and you’ll gain insight into what’s going on, and what God wants. “As thou go step by step, He shall open up the way before thee” is the paraphrase of a precious scripture. “When he putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth ahead,” the Lord Jesus said in describing himself in John, Chapter 10. See? “In all our ways acknowledge Him,” there’s obedience, “and He shall direct thy paths.” There is guidance. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14.

See? God will guide you in direct proportion to your willingness to be led. I sometimes use the illustration of a Mack truck standing at the curb. Did you ever try to steer a truck that’s standing still? Well, it’s almost impossible. You can’t begin to move the steering wheel because that heavy vehicle there is pressing down upon the wheels, and you can’t do any steering. The thing isn’t going anywhere. But you get in motion, then you can turn the steering wheel. Then you can guide it. It’s easier, then, to steer a vehicle that’s in motion.

Alright. You want to get in motion in doing what you know to be the will of God today? I’m confident that every one of us, including yours truly, knows enough. We know enough about the will of God to keep us busy till breakfast. The great many things that need doing that we haven’t gotten around to because we’ve been putting them off. What you actually do when you decide not to obey God on a matter, what you actually do is to say something that’s very close to insulting. You’re actually saying, “God, that isn’t as important as what I have in mind right now.” You’re playing God is what you’re doing. You’re putting yourself in the place of God’s will. And so one of the things that you and I have to learn is that we will be divinely guided in the will of God as we… And in direct proportion as we do what we know to be God’s will.

“Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth there, and he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed,” says James. To do the will of God. Well, it all goes back to the decision, “What do you want, what you want, or what God wants?” That is the basic decision. Once that decision is made, God works with you. “We are labourers,” Paul says, “together with God.” And what your labor… Labor means work, the work you do every day. The labor that you do turns out to be divine leverage for the eternal will of God. Has it ever occurred to you that the things you do every day, the routine, dull, repetitive things you do every day that… Because you have to, it can, by the divine grace of God, become part of his overall tapestry of glorious eternal planning? Have you ever thought that way?

Routine becomes glorified when you do it for Jesus. Routine becomes glorified when you do it for Jesus. “Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Whatever you do, he says, do it heartily, psyched up, as for Jesus. And radio depends upon for whom you are doing something. Isn’t that true? You’re preparing a meal just for the family. And you say, “What are you having for supper?” “Oh, just sloppy joes, hamburger, tomato sauce, some onions.” Whatever other seasonings you put in it, enough liquid to make it spreadable, a dozen hamburger buns, a tossed salad. And you put it on the table and say, “There you are, gang.” And of course, it tastes pretty good to a hungry family.

But let’s suppose the mayor of your city, or the governor of your state, or the president of our nation were going to stop by for a bite to eat, [chuckle] let alone the Secret Service would have searched the place already, and gone over all of the menu, and picked over everything with, as we say, a fine-tooth comb, let alone that, that would make you nervous enough. But now you’re gonna be very careful what you do in serving. Why? Because it’s somebody important. Well, bring that whole line of reasoning on over into the routine matters of every day. Get up, get dressed, pack half a dozen lunches, send the family out to school and work. Pick up the three million things they dropped on their way on out and straighten up the house, do the laundry, do the ironing, do the shopping. Take Junior to Boy Scout club, and take sister to her music class, and get supper ready, and so on through the day. That’s the homemaker’s schedule. Never a chance to sit down.

Try doing that for Jesus, will you, dear lady? Or mister. You get up, go to the office, tackle the jobs that are yours, many of them irritating and frustrating because decisions have been made upstairs that perhaps you didn’t have a share in, but you have to implement them anyway. Go on through the day. Or if you’re a salesperson, you’re out on the street selling, and you come on home tired. That’s another day of routine. Try… Listen, try doing what you do in routine for Jesus, in the will of God. “They gave themselves to us by the will of God.” Try doing what you do in routine work for Jesus.

Lord Jesus Christ, we worship and adore Thee, we pray that today we might be doing the will of God. I ask in Thy name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!