Finding Joy in God’s Will

Does God have a master plan for our lives? And if so, how do we discover it? How can we know the will of God?

Often, we have two views about the will of God that aren’t accurate. The first view is that finding God’s will is difficult, as though God were hiding it from us. We imagine God looking down from Heaven and saying, “You’re getting warmer. Warmer. Hot! Hot! No. Cold. Cold. Cold.”

The opposite view is that God’s will is something undesirable, like going on a diet. Every diet seems to be either boring or miserable. And we can think of God’s will that way.

But here is what we need to know: On one hand, there is joy in the will of God. For example, the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, “By the will of God, I will be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and we will be an encouragement to each other” (Romans 15:32 NLT).

God’s will is joyful, and He wants to reveal His will to us.

On the other hand, when we’re not walking in God’s will, there is misery. In fact, the most miserable place to be is outside of God’s will.

The will of God is not an option for the true Christian. Therefore, not only should we want to know the will of God, but we also should be anxious to do the will of God. The psalmist David wrote, “I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart” (Psalm 40:8 NLT).

God’s will is not something that we are forced to do, but it should be something that we want to do. And we’ll find joy in doing the will of God.