Delight in God's Will - (Short Message)

Intro: God’s Will and Decision Making

If you are like me, you were taught pretty early on about the idea of “God’s Will” and how important it is for us to try to stay within it.

Example- Lord’s prayer “your will be done”

And, if you are like me, this concept was very intimidating. My perception and pondering of God’s will became a very stressful one.

I viewed all the difference choices and situations in my life like a GPS, and that if I didnt take the exact route that God’s GPS had calculated, I was out of God’s will.

This of course makes decision making a terrifying experience.

Some are easier than others, specifically those decisions that are moral in nature: Should I go to this party or should I not? Should I date this girl who doesn’t love Jesus?

But some decision making is a little less clear: what college should I go to? What career path should I take? Is it safe for me to start going into public spaces again in light of COVID19? Is this a good business decision? You get the idea.

Many of us are familiar with the Proverbs 3:5 passage, to trust in the Lord and not lean on our own understanding. But what is the practical application of “trusting in the Lord.”

How do I know that I am trusting the Lord with a decision, and does it always have to be so stressful? I thought God was not a God of confusion?

MAIN QUESTION: How do I pray according to God’s will?

We are going to look at a couple passages, including that Proverbs passage, and see how we can practically approach trusting God with our circumstances and doing so with a joyful heart.

Trust Comes First - Psalm 37

Acknowledge

First things first, if we want to learn to pray according to, or into God’s will, we have to begin with trusting. So how does the Bible define trusting?

(Read Proverbs 3:5-6)

We are very familiar with the verse 5, but to me, I’m still left asking “how?”

Vs 6 - Acknowledge

Define Acknowledge

literally - “know” God

Simply being aware and making room for him in your decision

If we are constantly acknowledging God then It is to say with your heart, “I’m aware that your plan is the best plan, and I want to go that way.” And this is the first step.

This reminds me of Paul saying to “pray without ceasing.”

So what happens when we begin to prayerfully acknowledge him?

DELIGHT

(Read Psalm 37:1-7)

Overall Context and Message: God hasn’t forgot you in your circumstances

Historically is believed to be written by David, who had countless reasons to write a psalm like this, being oppressed by Saul as well as his own children.

But the book of Psalms quickly became a song book for exiled Israel many years in the future, so that they could find comfort in their exile in knowing that God was aware of your circumstances

Verses 3-4

Explain how Hebrew Poetry works, parallelism

The author would say that trusting in the Lord should include delighting.

Now, we all know that this is not teaching us that God is going to give us whatever we want, so what does it mean?

Define Delight

What is something that happens when we Delight in something?

(Child and Ice Cream)

When we delight in the Lord, he begins to shape our desires to want what he wants

(Open Hands Idea) - “I’m open for whatever you want put in and take out of my hands”. We are moldable like clay

This means we delight in his Word

We can’t delight in the Lord and be in contradiction to his word, we cannont delight in sin.

This doesn’t mean we never sin, but it would suggest that we aren’t being mastered by sin, or living actively in sin.

And he uses many avenues to begin to shift our desires, including Scripture, experiences, people, logic, wisdom. But it is the Holy Spirit that takes these avenues and shapes our desires

So the second step with Praying into God’s Will is Delighting in God

We get this mixed up often, thinking that once I make the right decision according to God’s will, then I will be blessed and delight in him.

But think about the order in which Jesus describes obedience to him:

John 14:15 CSB

“If you love me, you will keep my commands.

Jesus says that as result of the love that we have for him, it’s expected that we will keep his commands.

Secondly, Walk in Faith - Proverbs 3

Vs 6 - And he will make straight your paths

Well lets put it all together? How do you pray for God’s will?

When you are delighting God, living outside of sin and inside his word and goodness, and when you are actively acknowledging and trusting that his way is best in the circumstance that you are praying through, John Mcarther puts it this way- “Do what you want.” In other words, trust the DESIRES OF YOUR HEART, and believe that God will make straight the paths ahead of you.

This seems to be a very crude overly simplistic way. In fact to many of us, this might seem uncomfortable.

Some of us might even think of a verse that might contradict this

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

And it is true, our sinful heart is deceptive:

But the story of scripture of a whole beautifully points to Christ as the one who came to give us a new heart, one that is led by the Holy Spirit.

When we pray, if we are delighting in God and his word, have open hands and are pliable and willing to do anything, and when we take this delight and apply it to our prayers for guidance in decision making, we can be confident to trust that God is “giving us the desires of our Hearts.”

And so God’s Will becomes less of a GPS route that needs to be followed perfectly, and more of a condition of the heart that walks in faith.

Prayer Challenge/Invitation: Delighting and Trusting

So as we close together, here’s a challenge that we are going to pray through together now, and that you can continue to exercise in your life.

If you are struggling with decision making or trusting God in difficult circumstances,

Maybe you need to ask him to help you find your delight in him

A heart that is moldable

Hands that are open

Delighting in his commandments

Maybe you aren’t even in a habit of acknowledging God in all your ways in the first place.

Pray that God will teach you to “pray without ceasing”

That you would go through your day in constant conversation with him.