What God Wants

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

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I’ve previously written about knowing God’s will. I’m certainly not an expert, but I can truthfully say I know more about it now than I did a few years ago. In fact, I believe knowing God’s will is fairly easy if we are willing to do what we need to do to understand what His will is all about. In essence, knowing and fulfilling God’s will is what God wants for each of us. But we have to do some grunt work.

We are told repeatedly in His Word that if we are willing to live the way He wants us to live, in most cases, understanding His will becomes normative or second nature. This does not mean we will live it perfectly but our desires will be to try to do so. Yes, there are things we don’t know, but want to know, that will often only come to us through sustained efforts in prayer regarding something; a job, a spouse, higher education, a move to another area, etc. These things and many others may require us to focus on Him, praising Him for how He guides us as we seek His will. Often, they seem almost naturally occurring when all is said and done yet we know as we look back that God guided our direction as we sought to fulfill His will.

One of the (and often stated), benefits of doing His will results in getting to know God a bit better each time we determine to do what He wants us to do. The Bible tells us that we will find God if we seek Him with all of our heart, mind and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29-31).

But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

Many sections of Scripture repeat this idea, like Jeremiah 29:13, Amos 5:4-6, Psalm 34:4-5, and others. We should absolutely seek God and He will reward that seeking.

But what does it mean to seek God? Here I am – 67 years-old – and I think I have a better understanding of what it means to get to know God now than when I first became a Christian at age 13. If you look up at the Deuteronomy reference quoted above, you’ll note that one part states, “…When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice.” This is speaking to the nation of Israel and the end times, but it also has application for Christians.

Throughout Scripture, obedience is really the key in getting to know God. If we are not willing to obey His commands, then we really have no business asking God for anything. Why should He respond to our prayers by giving us what we ask for? The Old Testament is filled with God’s remonstrance against Israel for not living obediently and constantly seeking idols. Yet, they also came to the Temple to worship God. God grew sick and tired of it.

So I’m wondering if all too often, we spend too much time pleading to “know” God but aren’t willing to put the effort and time in to be obedient to Him? If we say that we are His, doesn’t it come back to this question asked by Jesus Himself, found in Luke 6:46?

But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?

Jesus has a solid point. If we claim to be Christians, shouldn’t we be involved in obeying Him? Ultimately, obedience speaks to our love for God. So, to understand what that means, we need to know at least something about His Word, don’t we? If we don’t, then we will miss sections of Scripture that tell us exactly what true religion is all about.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27 NKJV)

James isn’t the only one who says this either. It is a repeated command throughout God’s Word (Exodus 22:22, Deuteronomy 24:19, John 3:17, Psalm 68:5; 82:3, Isaiah 10:2, Malachi 3:5, Zechariah 7:9-10). But what are these verses talking about? They are talking about the fact that God’s own heart reaches out to widows and the fatherless as well as people who are taken advantage of by others and God wants to reach out to these people through us!

God expects His children who claim to be Christians, to do what He Himself would do where people are concerned. That often includes widows and orphans and the poor in general. Now, I’m not talking about “social justice.” This has nothing to do with that. I’m talking about simply being obedient to God’s commands to help those who have far less than He has blessed us with in our lives.

Recently, I had the opportunity to help a grandmother; a widow and raising two grandsons. The widow’s husband died a number of years ago and the widow lives on a very small pension of just over $800/month. The (mobile) home they were living in was coming down around them.

I learned about the situation from a friend at church. I forget how it came up but he was talking about going over there to demolish the old mobile home and put in another one. He and his wife had purchased another mobile home for the widow. I was amazed at the fact that the grandmother did not even attend our church. But folks at our church learned of her and her situation because of another couple in our church that has a food ministry to those in need in the community. The grandmother came for food and they took the time to listen to her and realized there was a far greater need than just food, so they got others involved.

After I heard this story, I immediately volunteered to help, noting that I was not a carpenter or anything but I’d be happy to do the grunt work if he needed my help. I committed to helping the next day.

I arrived and began picking up the massive amount of garbage and junk around the property. I recall having passed this home many times in the past on my way to somewhere and I always noticed several things. First, the amount of junk around the house was astounding to me. Second, there was a beautiful long white haired Great Pyrenees dog that was always kept chained up to a large tree in the front and was filthy. It always broke my heart when I saw him. I learned later that the grandmother had many animals, including a donkey they kept in a pen in the back. The donkey never got enough food or water and eventually had to be put down. The widow should probably not have any animals really because she cannot afford to adequately care for them.

As I began picking up trash, I was mystified how anyone could allow this to happen. Everywhere I looked, it was trash, worn out rusted tools, numerous go-carts, ATVs and motorcycles and the like. I must’ve picked up about 30-40 tires and put them all in one pile to be dealt with later. There was a ton of metal that also was placed in another pile in the hopes of getting a few pennies for all of it.

I had no experience running excavators or bobcats, but the guy in charge of the demo said I needed to just get in and start doing it. He gave me basic instructions and told me to “go.” So I did.

I began moving around the area, picking up piles of junk and dropping it all into an onsite roll-away dumpster with the excavator I was driving. When the dumpster would fill up, it would be removed and replaced with another one. We also graded dirt to try to flatten and grade the area for the placement of the new mobile home and to get the rainwater to run away from the mobile home.

I learned quite a bit but the most important aspect of all of this is what we accomplished for a widow and her grandsons. I know nothing about the grandsons’ father or mother; where they are and/or what they are doing. I just know the grandmother has the grandsons living with her and she really cannot afford it.

Note in the first picture, some of the exterior demo has already begun. The second image down shows a view from the side. In the third picture down, I’m picking up garbage and filling up the dumpster. I couldn’t help the next day, but I was able to help the day after. Another day of picking up garbage, cast off wood, more rusty cast-off tools, tires, metal and many other things. Finally, as seen in the last photo down, the old mobile home is completely gone and the final piles of garbage are ready to be placed inside the dumpster. Then the grading began.

I was again talking to the guy who is leading this project and he said he and his wife budgeted $50,000 for it, including the purchase of a newer used mobile home (which had to meet square feet minimum by the County).

This project represents Christianity in action. I don’t have $50,000 but I can certainly donate a few days of my time for such a good project.

This is not one of those situations where we can just walk away and not worry about it any longer. This grandmother will need help. She’s going to have to understand that when something breaks down, she needs to let the church know. If she needs food, she needs to feel free to come to the place where she will be given food (normally with a whatever she can afford donation).

I was talking one of the guys helping (he had his young son helping too) and a woman down the road needed some grading done. So he and the head guy went over to chat with her. When they came back, the one guy said, “I’m getting a new dog!” Then he told me about the husky the woman had that was kept on a run. The problem is that huskies need huge amounts of space because they are so active! You cannot keep them in a cage or even on a run. They are working dogs and hate being confined to small spaces. So the woman told him he was welcome to take the dog. Interesting that out of helping this one grandmother, another woman is relieved of the dog she cannot help that much but clearly wanted to do something for the dog because of its previous circumstance.

In the end, obedience is key to getting to know God. He honors it when we take the time to obey His commands. Without our obedience to His commands and will, we cannot truly hope to begin knowing God.

If we are truly sincere about wanting to know God, we must be just as sincere in wanting to obey His commands. We cannot say we want to know God and not live sacrificially. The two go hand in hand.

What God wants is to use us as a channel of blessing to others and Jesus is our best Model for that. This can mean evangelizing the lost. It can mean helping the widows, the orphans and the poor (always with an eye on their spiritual needs). This is what God wants and He has made this abundantly clear throughout His Word. Are you paying attention?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2024/09/03/what-god-wants-2/