“Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God
commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” 1 Peter
4:19 (NKJV).
Doing the will of God fully means you must be prepared and
willing to go where you don’t want to go. You must be willing to be scoffed at,
ridiculed, hated, and dismissed outright as a lunatic and fanatic. Doing the
will of God means you will be challenged and you will suffer. Doing the will of
God means going against the tide, giving up all that you previously held dear
and learning that to be right with God means you will be wrong with this world.
Doing the will of God means it is not about you, your desires, your hopes for
your life and it is not about doing the bare minimum so that you can feel good
about your goodness.
Noah did the will of God and could only have been the
laughing stock of the land, until the waters came. Abraham did the will of God
and left all that he knew and was familiar with behind and received the
promise. Moses did the will of God and carried the burden of leading the people
for half of his life. The prophets did the will of God and were imprisoned,
rejected, scorned and killed. The apostles did the will of God and were
wandering preachers who were imprisoned, rejected and eventually killed. Jesus
did the will of God and that perfect and lovely soul was spat upon, rejected,
beaten, jailed and killed for us. Doing the will of God leads to hateful
encounters, angry confrontations and flat out rejection as well as being
considered a completely crazy person who is a fanatic.
When the world loves you, pause. When the world praises some
pastor or leader of some church, pause. When those who are living outside of
the will of God find no fault in you, pause. When you blend so completely into
those who are of this world, pause. When you pursue your happiness believing
that God wants you only to be happy, pause. When you have convinced yourself
that you have done enough and are good enough, pause.
You cannot do the will of God in secret and believe that you
are doing it right. You cannot go about your business of living while around
others and then go to church one day a week and be doing it right. You cannot
keep your beliefs and faith in God a secret and be doing it right. Does this
mean that you should go grab a picket sign and find a cause? No. But, you
should stand so firmly in your belief in the salvation of Jesus Christ that
your beliefs are never questioned. You should behave in such a way that you are
not recognized by this world as one of their own. You should seek to do the
will of God and not the will of yourself. Never assume that God does not want
you to sacrifice, suffer or lose someone or something that is precious to you
in order for you to do His will because the Bible teaches us otherwise.
“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an
evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s business. Yet, if anyone suffers
as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this
matter.” 1 Peter 4:15-16 (NKJV).
