3. DEO VOLENTE, GOD WILLING

At the end of his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul mentions a man named Epaphras. He writes: “He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.”

Epaphras prayed that the followers of Jesus would be committed to carrying out God’s will. There was a time when the phrase “Lord willing” was fairly common in conversation and in prayer. During one group discussion of this chapter, someone asked whether the use of the expression was our way of giving God a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. When He doesn’t answer our prayers the way we expect, we can cover up His inability to deliver by saying that what we asked must not have been His will. I would hope that is not true, but I wonder if, in some cases, it really is our way of excusing God.

“Lord willing” is an expression of our dependence on Him. It also recognizes that our prayers are offered with limited information. Only the One who knows and planned the future can respond to our prayers in a way that brings Him glory and advances His purposes in our lives.

Do we believe that things happen or don’t happen outside of His will? The Scriptures are clear that no plan can be carried out apart from the Divine will.

James 4:13-15 reminds us, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”

You may have heard someone say, or read about someone saying, that when God gifted man with free will, He limited Himself to whatever man chose to do. Accepting that statement at face value leads us to the conclusion that there are things more under our control than under God’s control.

How do you feel about that?

We struggle with the idea that our “control” might not be control at all. We can all think of events and circumstances we desperately want to attribute to “accidents” caused by someone’s poor choices, to circumstances beyond our control, to the consequences of living in a broken world, or to “Mother Nature.” We do not want to believe that God was in control when a drunk driver hit an SUV, resulting in the death of three children and their grandfather. How can we accept as God’s sovereign will that a child was hit and killed in a crosswalk when a driver ran a light? We do not want to believe that God was in control when the doctors returned with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. We do not want to believe that God was in control when that tsunami swept away hundreds of people as they enjoyed a visit to a seaside resort.

But if God fails to be in control of one or more things, then He makes Himself a liar by declaring so often and so clearly that He is the Sovereign Lord of all. And if He has lied about that, how can we know that He has not lied about other things? How can we trust Him?

Explaining how man’s ability to make choices, apparently by exercising his will freely, aligns with the sovereignty of God is a task for another time and place. But as one of the former directors of the mission with which I once served said: “The sovereignty of God and the free will of man meet somewhere in the mind of God.” And His ways and thoughts are certainly far beyond my own.

It would have been impossible for Paul to trust God if he had not believed Him to be in control of everything. Paul suffered more than most of us ever will, yet he could write to his chosen son, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 1:12, saying, “…of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”

Paul is speaking about his death. He knows that his eternal destiny is secure. We would probably say a hearty “amen” to what he has written, though a close encounter with our own mortality sometimes makes us revisit how secure we really feel about our eternal destination.

But what about that “accident” that took your grandchild, or that cancer that won’t go away no matter how hard you pray? What about that wayward son or daughter? What about the job you lost or the bad choices you have made? What about the day-to-day interruptions, frustrations, delays, and disappointments?

Familiar and not-so-familiar reminders of God’s sovereign will being exercised in the decisions we make, whether big or small, are scattered throughout the Scriptures.

Proverbs 16:9 tells us this, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”

Proverbs 19:21: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Proverbs 21:30: “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.”

In what ways are these verses an encouragement to you? How can they also trigger a crisis of faith?

Solomon discovered that even the best of lives was meaningless without the implicit belief that God’s will was central to all that happened in that life. He wrote in Ecclesiastes 7:13, 14, “Consider what God has done: who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.” This last phrase was curious. According to Solomon, God is responsible for both good and what we consider “bad.” Since we don’t know what God is planning for us, we can’t foretell what our experiences in life will be. Here is where the trust factor enters once again. If we trust God without reservation and believe Him both loving and all-powerful, it doesn’t matter whether good or “bad” enters our lives. We know that He will look after everything that concerns us in a way that both brings Him glory and works for our eternal benefit.

Jeremiah confirms for us what Solomon has written. During the terrible years of destruction and desolation in Judah, as he witnesses the devastation in his beloved city of Jerusalem, the prophet writes: “Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?”^[i]

The expression “Lord willing” becomes an acknowledgment that whatever plans we make, whatever we ask in prayer, and whatever experiences come into our lives are under the sovereign control of the Almighty and loving God. We make the best plans we can with the best information we have. We bare our hearts and our hurts before the Lord, asking what we most desire of Him. Our lives take twists and turns we don’t understand and find hard to accept as coming from the hand of a loving God. Like babies in the arms of our mothers, we unquestioningly believe that our cries will be heard and our needs supplied by someone greater than ourselves—even when that booster shot hurts!

Paul tells us in Romans 12:1, 2 that God’s will is perfect. Those who trust Him and submit to that will as an act of worship find it to be true. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

John writes God’s words to the church in Philadelphia in Revelation 3:7, “These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

Have you ever tried to kick open any tightly closed doors of opportunity only to bend your toes out of shape? Have you ever railed at God because He refused to give you something you desperately wanted? Or railed at Him because He gave you something you insisted on, only to discover it wasn’t quite the wonderful gift you imagined? How does the trust implicit in adding “Lord willing” affect knocking on doors of opportunity, making requests of God, or discovering that what you received didn’t live up to your expectations?

Acts 24:27 describes the actions of the Roman governor, Felix, who left Paul in prison for two years. This was only one of the many challenges the apostle faced. He also suffered a physical ailment that the Lord refused to remove from him. Joseph endured slavery, betrayal, imprisonment, separation from his family, and exile from his country and culture. None of these things was a surprise to God. Were his brothers’ evil intentions, Mr. and Mrs. Potipher’s actions, or the cupbearer’s forgetfulness, accidents or circumstances beyond anyone’s control? No, they were elements of Joseph’s divinely designed story, just as all the persecution, beatings, misunderstandings, and physical and emotional challenges suffered by Paul were.

No detail is missed by God. Let’s return to this well-known passage in Matthew 10:29-31. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than the sparrows.”

Thinking deeply about these verses, what is Jesus telling us?

Those who belong to Him need not fear Satan regarding the eternal destiny of their souls. Although Satan may be permitted to touch our bodies (the “fall” suggested in the illustration of the sparrows), the believer has confidence that even then he remains under God’s care. Jesus knew this when He rebuked Pilate for believing that, as Roman governor, he had control over the Lord’s life or death.

Let’s read the verses again. John 19:10-11 says, “‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ Pilate said, ‘Don’t you realize that I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.’”

One of the best-known passages highlighting God’s good intentions toward us is found in Psalm 121. But if we are honest, a niggling doubt often arises when we look at the adverse circumstances of our lives. Does God really mean what He says? If He does, is He not able, or does He not care, to fix what seems so wrong in my life? The psalm ends with this promise—a promise we question when life is not all that we anticipate it to be. “The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life.” But does not death, disease, and disaster qualify as harm? How can these things be His will? And how can they be aligned with the promises He makes?

I wonder if the words of this psalm entered Jesus’ mind as He stood before Pilate knowing that He would soon be hanging on a cross. Why would He believe His Father’s words? Why should we?

Jesus believed His Father’s words because He knew His Father intimately. He understood His Father’s intentions and trusted Him implicitly. God’s plan was His. His Father’s will was also His will. As we get to know God better, our ability to model that level of trust will grow. As we trust Him more, we become better able to accept and embrace what happens in our lives as His will and His plan.

Paul understood that whatever was happening in the moment had a purpose beyond it. He believed he could trust God. The apostle was the divinely inspired author of another familiar verse often quoted in times of distress. It’s important to read this verse in the context that follows. Romans 8:28-39, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose…”

Notice that this purpose he writes about is then explained: “…to be conformed to the image of his son…”

If God is working for our best interests as He fulfills His purpose for us through all these experiences in our lives, what should our response be? Paul answers that question: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?…Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?….No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Just look at all the things we can thank God for! No one will be able to stand against us. He will provide all we need. He intercedes for us. We are never separated from His love. Nothing can come between us and our Lord.

Notice the phrase “Christ Jesus…is also interceding for us…” Remember Jesus’ words to Peter when He tells His follower that Satan has asked permission to “sift” him and the other disciples, but that He, Jesus, is praying for them that their trust in Him will not fail. Here we have an example of God’s “permissive will.” He allows Satan to do this “sifting” though never apart from His divine design or beyond His control.

God did not even spare His own Son. Jesus went willingly to the cross so that we could be all God designed us to be, be returned to Him, and learn to imitate Him. He will do what needs doing in our lives to reach that goal. Of what can we be assured during those times when the tests that strengthen our faith and bring us toward that goal of maturity are hard?

Paul refers to this again in Ephesians 1:11, 12: “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory” and again in Ephesians 2:10: “…for we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

God’s purpose for me, His will, decided before the beginning of time, is to bring praise to His name by doing what He designed specifically for me. Everything He brings into my life is directed toward fulfilling that purpose. That really makes me feel both humbled and excited!

How about you?

Joseph, after experiencing more downturns in life than most of us will ever be called upon to suffer, reassured his brothers that: “God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives… it was not you who sent me here, but God.” The brothers had been unaware that they were part of God’s plan to save their lives and that of their father.

Paul reminds his readers that stories like Joseph's have a message for us: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”^[ii] Joseph’s God is our God too. He hasn’t changed! The Old Testament, or the First Testament, as Marva J. Dawn calls it, is a playbook for us. It describes how God has operated in the past. It has been preserved for us so that we will have a guide in the present and the future.

God’s will for us is to learn to give thanks to Him in every situation. As difficult as it may seem in those dark places in our lives, when we have a hard time seeing the hand of God, we are instructed on what our attitude should be. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 reminds us: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” We will revisit this a little later on.

God will complete what He has begun. Job acknowledged this. In Job 42:2 he says, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” The psalmist concurs: “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.”^[iii] The prophet Isaiah agrees: “For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”^[iv] and “Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”^[v] And again, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’”^[vi]

Even those who resisted God and learned the hard way that He was sovereign over all and in all had to admit this truth. In Daniel 4:34, 35, after suffering a period of insanity brought on by God because of his rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed: “At the end of that time, I Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes towards heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honoured and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’”

We do question Him. Or, for fear of appearing to question Him, we attribute those things that do not appear to us to be acts of a loving God, to “accidents,” “forces beyond anyone’s control” or to Satan.

What do we learn about God from these verses, and what is your reaction to their truth?

Second Corinthians 5:7 tells us that we need to, “…live by faith, not by sight.” We need to operate on the assurance that the One who loved us enough to sacrifice His own Son to bring us back into fellowship with Him has our best interests at heart. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,’” writes the prophet in Jeremiah 29:11.

We echo the words of the psalmist in Psalm 18:28-30: “You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, his way is perfect: the Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.”

The little book of Ruth reminds us how God turns darkness into light and advances the cause of those who trust Him. It tells the story of Naomi and her husband, who left Bethlehem to seek a better life in Moab. Their two sons married Moabite women, but happiness turned to grief when both Naomi’s husband and her two sons died. The grieving widow heard that prosperity had returned to Bethlehem and decided to go back home. Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law, chose to follow the God of Israel rather than the gods of her people, the Moabites, and to go with Naomi. This is beautifully expressed in Ruth 1:16. “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay, your people will be my people and your God my God.” That declaration came despite having lost her husband and being forced to leave her homeland for an unknown place where she would face poverty and prejudice. Her trust in God was not in vain. Little did she know then that her act of faith would place her in the line of David, from which the Saviour would come. At the time she made that decision, she would not have understood how her story would become a foretelling of the time when those outside the household of Israel would be allowed entrance into the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus.^[vii]

This is a happy ending. With the benefit of hindsight, we have no problem attributing happy endings to God’s work of grace. But what happens when the end of the story is not such a happy one? If we look at what Scripture relates about the events in the lives of the disciples, we are faced with the inexplicable, at least from a human standpoint.

Acts 12:1-3 tells us: “It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also…”

James^[viii] died. But the rest of the story tells us how God miraculously rescued Peter. While one family rejoices, another mourns. While the church is ecstatic over one miracle, does anyone wonder why there wasn’t a similar miracle for James? Is God not in control of some circumstances, though He is in control of others? Why would His will be so different when it came to deciding to save Peter and not James?

Ecclesiastes 7:14 reminds us: “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.”

Isaiah 45:7 tells us: “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.”

Lamentations 3:38 adds, “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?”

Health, wealth and success are not necessarily the birthright of every believer. Christians suffer just as non-believers do. These so-called “reverses” in our fortunes are not the result of a lack of faith. Nor are they necessarily the result of divine punishment. Of all men, Paul’s faith was probably the strongest. Yet he suffered. As a faithful and true servant of Jesus, there would be few who could match him. Yet he suffered. He also came to the conclusion that all of these things were entrusted to him as God’s perfect will. They were the best way for God to show Himself to a lost world through Paul. A lost world is trying to deal with chaos and adversity without God. How a believer handles the adversities of life with God speaks volumes to that world.

“Therefore, in order to keep me from being conceited, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”^[ix]

When was the last time you praised God for a weakness, an insult, a hardship, a difficulty, or a time of persecution?

We consider the challenges we face as evil. In a very real sense, that is an insult to the God who, as part of His divine will, has sent them to us as a means of growing us into the likeness of Jesus. True, they cause us pain, fear, and disquiet. But they should also prompt us to give thanks as we lay them at His feet. Philippians 4:4-7 tells us: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!…Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The world will not understand (perhaps we don’t always either) how we can be thankful for what the world calls “bad.” But the believer knows and trusts the One from whom all things flow. The Son of God Himself surrendered to the worst that God could bring, with that trust intact. Should we not exercise that same trust?

Psalm 119:11 invites us to do that, “You who fear him, trust the Lord—he is their help and shield.”

^[i] Lamentations 3:37

^[iv] Isaiah 14:27

^[v] Isaiah 43:13

^[vi] Isaiah 46:10

^[viii] Luke 5:10; Matthew 4:18-22

^[ix] 2 Corinthians 12:9