Romans 12.2 commands, do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

Nearly everyone wants to know God’s will for their life. When thinking about this matter we usually place the onus of our ignorance upon God instead of ourselves. We think because we asked but didn’t hear it’s His fault for not communicating with us. What if He responded but we didn’t hear so He will tell us its our fault for not doing His will?

The verse in review today places the knowing of God’s will upon us and not God for doing what pleases Him. Knowing God’s will so that we can do God’s will is easy enough for us but we have to do something more than offer a quick prayer for direction the moment before we plan to take action.

Step one is to train our mind to think like God instead of thinking like everyone around us. The world has its way of doing things and God has His. God’s way of thinking is recorded in the Christian Bible. If we want to know God’s thoughts we have to read God’s Word. God’s Word reveals God’s will so that we are capable of obedience. It is the will of God and our compliance to it that will determine our eternal destiny. The opinion we have of our own goodness or worthiness to enter God’s eternal dwelling is irrelevant; only God’s opinion will matter when He decides who lives with Him and who lives apart from Him.

Step two is to engage God’s will as recorded in God’s Word to experience God’s presence and further leading. The Bible is crystal clear in the broad description of God’s will while leaving the specific obedience to that will subjective to each person and each circumstance. For example, God commands us to love our neighbor as we love our self. When Jesus was pressed for a practical definition of this command He told a story of a man needing help after being robbed and beaten. As we commit to obeying God, God by His Spirit, will place in our path opportunities to practically obey Him.

This leads to step three: stop looking to God to micromanage you and instead embrace the adventure of a living God working with you and through you to accomplish His purposes during the mundane course of your day. Most of us want to know specifics of God’s will for things like homes to buy, jobs to take or places to live. God wants us to love, serve, and give which can be done anywhere at any work in any place.

God isn’t a micromanager as much as He is the majority partner looking for a teammate to connect with for making Him known in the world. Knowing the will of God is easy, doing the will of God and trusting Him for clarity in the details is the hard part but the best part for experiencing God.