How We Know what God wants
How do we know what God wants from us and what he wants us to do?
This is the question that we all desire as humans to have a positive answer for and yet it seems to be evasive to us much of the time. God himself says he wants us to understand what his will is, as he states in Ephesians;
Ephesians 5:17 “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
Yet I think many times we do feel foolish, because it seems hard for us to understand or be sure what Gods will for us really is. Why is this? If God says that we should understand then why don’t we?
As Gods children – If you truly want to know what God wants you to do – we need to to look to him for the answers we seek. They can only be found in Gods word, the bible. Have you searched and sincerely asked him?
There are two ways we can communicate with God. Through prayer and reading the bible. God may also speak to us in other ways through a person or even through opportunities but for now let’s focus on prayer and reading his word to understand what the lords will is.
God desires our love above all other things. How do we know this? God says it in Mark when asked, what is the greatest commandment?
Mark 12:29-31 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
So, What God wants from us is for us to love him. This is something we can do everyday in everything we do. Love God and love our neighbors. But how do we show our love for God? In John, Jesus says;
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.“
That sounds simple enough. We can show our love by keeping Gods commandments, loving God and by loving our neighbors or those around us.
We should love God just as we would do with anyone we truly love, a spouse, a parent or a very close friend. When we truly love someone we want to do whatever they ask so we can make them happy.
This brings us back to communication with God. How can we do what God commands us to do unless we have a relationship with him by spending time in communication with him? If we are to understand what God wants us to do, we should show our love for him by spending time with him everyday. If we love him – we will do as he commands – in order to know what he commands – we communicate with him through reading his word and spending time in prayer with him.
In the same way that a friend who we love would tell us what they would like us to do to please them, God, our friend, tells us through our communication with him what we should do.
Can we really be friends with God? In Romans it says we are;
Romans 5:11 “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.“
What can I do for God today?
Therefore through communication with God – reading Gods word and prayer – By loving him and keeping his commandments – We Will Know what it is God wants us to do.