let's make a deal

Mysterious. Have you, like me, contemplated what the will of God is? To me, it has felt like the game show, “Let’s Make a Deal.” The host, with a sly smile on his face, points mysteriously to three curtains, “Do you want what’s behind curtain number 1, curtain number 2 or curtain number 3?” I stand shifting from foot-to-foot, looking at others while contemplating what is hidden from view. Fear of choosing the booby prize and hearing the laughter from the audience fills me with fear. My desire is to receive the reward of a shiny new car or a treasure chest full of money.

In the past trying to determine God’s will for my life left me on my face crying out to God to please show me. It seemed mysterious, unsearchable and unknowable. I was terrified to make a choice sure I would miss out and end up with second best, plan B or a booby prize of a life, a failure. What if the will of God is not a “something,” but a “Someone.” Not a searching to find, but a receiving. Not an outside compliance but an inside transformation.

Let’s start at the beginning to see what God had in mind. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness . . .’ Genesis 1:26. God desired mankind would be like Him, perfect, holy, righteous; to give a correct estimate and opinion of who He is, to fill the earth with His glory. The perfect will of God. Man chose another way, his way, to rule his own life. The first bite of the fruit left Adam and Eve bereft of the image of God and clothed only in self. BUT God never changed Plan A. His will for us is still the same. While the first Adam failed, Christ, the second Adam did not! “So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. . . . And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” 1 Corinthians 15:45, 49. We bear His image and Christ restores to us the glory of God. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” John 17:22-23. Receiving the life of Christ, we become partakers of His divine nature. “To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature . . . 2 Peter 1:1-4.

To be in Christ is to be in God’s will. Being one with Christ will never change, no choice made will ever take us out of Christ. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." John 10:27-30. Whatever the choices we make, God will use them all for good, for His purpose, conforming us to the image of Christ. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Romans 8:28-30.

A friend heard God say, “My will is not a place or a distinct path, my will is a Person. As I will never leave you, I am with you wherever you go, as I am in you, so is my will.” I agree! If you like me, have struggled to know God’s will, take heart and rest in Christ. There is no Plan B! There is only one plan, one will of God - that you would be one with Him, to be conformed to His image and He will accomplish it through you and in you!