God's Will versus My Will

I have to be careful when I read about the Israelites and all their grumblings in the Bible. Sometimes I read about their conduct and I hear this, "Blah, blah, blah ...Wah, wah, complain...grumble...whine....whine" and I think to myself, "Why can't they see God's goodness??? Why are they never satisfied?"

In 1 Samuel 12 the Israelites complained to God about wanting a king.

Here we go again...Complain, complain, complain...

God gives them a king- king Saul. But that wasn't God's perfect will for them. He allowed it. But it wasn't His perfect will. I want to learn the valuable lesson between obeying God's perfect will and following after my own will.

Unfortunately, I can be a whiner and complainer too...

I want to be able to discern between God's perfect will and His permissive will to avoid unecessary pain in this life.

The Israelites were never satisfied. Aren't we the same way? We ask God for something. LORD, please can I have this new job? I'll give more to missions or to the church. Then we get the job and we grumble. LORD, I love the new job...but my boss is killing me! Can you please transfer me to such and such? That other boss is great and he's a Christian too.

Or LORD, it would be great if I moved to a nicer neighborhood. I'll witness to everyone! Please move me! Then, oh LORD. The neighborhood's great, we love our new home...but there are way too many helicopters flying over our home...and I can't sleep because of the sound of the cars driving by and and...

Bottom line we need to discern between our own will and God's will...when we make our requests (or wants) to the LORD.

Listen to Samuel's wisdom, "But when you were afraid of Nahash the king of Ammon you came to me and said that you wanted a king to reign over you, even though the LORD your God was already your king. All right here is the king you have chosen. Look him over. You asked for him and the LORD has granted your request." 1 Samuel 12:12 NLT

Later, Saul was anointed king and the troubles start. King Saul feared men. He cared and worried what others thought of him. Sadly, King Saul wasn't a man after God's own heart. King Saul waited for Samuel on on occasion and Samuel the prophet was taking long so Saul's patience grew thin....King Saul said, (paraphrasing) "I'll just offer the burnt offering myself." King Saul was not a priest.

Samuel replies, "How foolish...You have disobeyed the command of the LORD your God...Had you obeyed, the LORD would have established your kingdom over Isreal forever. But now your dynasty must end, for the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart."
1 Samuel 13:12-1

God is the same in Old Testament times through New Testament times to the 1950s and today...God is the same. He never changes.

God is STILL seeking men and women after His own heart.

But we grumble. We want more.

Part of this whole thing is due to the influences we allow in. The media, commercials, magazines, billboards are all telling us we "need" this or that. So we give in. We believe what man says we need to be fulfilled. A bigger car, a smaller waist line, a bigger house, a smaller greener car, a bigger savings account, new this, new that...

Stop the insanity! All we need is Jesus period. But, back to my heart's desire: to follow God's perfect will versus my own will. We can pray and ask for something and God may give it to us...but we will never, no never, I mean never, be satisfied until OUR PRAYERS are in alignment with God's perfect will for us.

What's God's perfect will?

To love God above all. To love God supremely, sublimely, more than anything else, and to love others sacrificially. If our prayers are in alignment with loving God more and loving others more, go for it! The prayer request is likely in alignment with God's perfect will. But if the prayer request is for something that is self centered or if we simply don't have total peace about the request, it is not likely in God's perfect will. This is hard to discern for sure! I struggle with this all the time...

We know that the Bible calls David a man after God's own heart. (Acts 13:22) He was all about being in God's perfect will. Of course he failed and we will too...but listen to this...David prays, "I love the LORD because He hears and answers my prayers. Because He bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath." Psalm 116:1-2

I too want to pray as long as I have breath.

Knowing God's will should be easy. Seek God first and everything else will fall into place right? (Matt 6:33) But it's not always easy to discern things of the spirit because we have the flesh, satan and the world distracting us. So pray on saints! Keep asking, seeking and knocking...When you aren't sure what God's will is, remember this:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18