"For all things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
I still struggle from day to day on the plan and purpose of God in my life. I wish I could say that I do what God wants me to do each day. I do not. I wish I could say I approach each day as God wants me to. I do not. One thing I have learned from the mistakes of my past is that often when we really want to do "good" things, we have to be careful not to make them "the will of God." Often good things can "mask" themselves as God's direction for our lives because they are "good" in our eyes. Many times in my life I have spent time doing "good" things that were not the will of God. I would be amiss if I didn't mention here that I often have done "bad" things as well (some knowingly and some by omission). The point I am making here though is that often we see something "good" and assume it is from God only to find out that the good was not his will. He was looking at our "Best" while we were focused on the "good."
The reason I titled this entry "The Dynamic Will of God" is because I have come to see the Will of God as dynamic. It is ever changing. Not because he changes his mind but rather often allows His Will to appear to change based on our decisions. Another name for this might be "The Grace Will of God". Let me explain. I believe that God is omnipresent---He is in the past, present, and future. Time is an entity that God is not bound by. He supersedes time. He lives above it. He became subject to time at only one point in history and that was during the lifetime of Jesus Christ. He was God in human form subject to human frailties and natural laws. Therefore he was subject to time. He lived 33 years on this earth, died at a particular time, and was buried. After his resurrection, Jesus was not subject to natural laws anymore. He walked through walls, rose from the earth, etc. We look at our lives as being linear. We are born, we live, we die. God's perspective is not linear. He can see all things at once (past, present, and future). So from his perspective, he "knows" all the choices that we will make even before the first is ever made. This is why he was able to say to the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament, "I knew you in the womb." and in another place said, "I fashioned all your parts when as yet there were none of them." He does not know all the choices you make because he can "see" the future. He knows because he already IS IN your future just like the present. His grace (which is motivated by love), knows how to put all of the pieces in place because he has already experienced the end product. He knows by experiencing the outcome already, exactly which pieces of YOUR puzzle you are going to move. He supersedes you in your future!
This is comforting to me because so much of my life has been lived from the perspective that I will now describe. I made a short (and horrible) speech at my high school graduation ceremony in 1985. In that speech, I made the statement that we were at a great fork in the road of life and we could choose to go one way or the other. But if we chose the "wrong" way, it would get us further and further from God's Will for our lives. The "linear" view of life makes it very difficult if you take the wrong "fork" at any of the many roads you may come to in life. You get further and further from God's Will. By inference, this view proposes that we should always seek to get back to the original fork that we took a wrong turn on and proceed, never getting back the "time" we wasted on our detour. In my opinion, that is the why many people live their lives in the regret of roads not traveled and good decisions not made. We are sometimes even offended at the alternative view experienced by those who embrace the Grace of God. God is just as aware of the decisions we will make as he is of the decisions we have made. Grace is a God Characteristic that is subject to God's Laws and not natural laws. It is not confined to the present but is also operational in our futures! God allows us to make choices and at each juncture allows us to step into His Will that encompasses all the choices (good and bad) we have made in the past! Jesus Christ made this possible. This grace is not based on our merit but rather on His (Jesus) merit. This is why Paul said, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."
Many of you reading this know that at one point in my life I pastored a church. An unfortunate circumstance occurred and I went back to that church several years ago. Let me interject here that pastoring that church was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I met some of the best people in the world by pastoring that church. I made many lasting friendships. But suffice it to say that I have had many life experiences since my time as pastor there. Some good, some not so good. As I was about to leave the grounds of the church after seeing many of these dear people after many years, one particular person, who I am sure had the best of intentions, had this to say when I told him that I lived in Miami (where I lived at the time), "Miami....why would anyone want to live in Miami? Was that God's Will or yours?" That is the problem with a linear view of God's will. It sees things in black and white (right or wrong). That is a standard no one can live up to. The problem with this is it presupposes that everyone makes the right decision ALL the time. No one does. There were several immutable facts at that point. I did live in Miami, I had children in Miami, I had a career in Miami. Should I uproot my life and everything that has occurred to match what I perceived to be God's will for my life 20 years ago? No, God doesn't expect that. He desires for me to make the right choice in THE PRESENT but when I didn't, he had already seen me in the future and puts things in place for me to be able to make the "right" choice where I am when I reached that point.
I am about to make this practical and it may be offensive to some but it is not intended to be. What I am saying is that God was preparing Michelle to be my wife 20 years ago. That does not mean that I made all right decisions or that it was not God's will at that time to heal my marriage. It was. It does not mean that God would not have blessed had I made different decisions. He would have blessed. It does, however, mean that God knows what choices I would make. God was far ahead of me with his grace. Did he bless every bad decision I made during that intervening time? No. I and others suffered as a result. But, he was still preparing grace gifts for me and providing opportunities for me to step into HIS will and working it all for my good. That's the Grace Will of God! What I am saying is that the Grace of God reached that far into the future! That should comfort us, not offend us! Remember, God is omnipresent. He has already experienced every decision I or you will ever make. Jesus paid for them ALL, both good and bad! His grace extends beyond what you experience NOW! His Will is Dynamic! May that truly motivate us to serve him out of love rather than selfish self-promotion!
