The will of God is my highest aim and most frustrating target.
Even though I know God’s will is my best option in every choice, my own will battles to be heard. It’s a tug-of-war I don’t want or need.
Why can’t I just pick God’s will out like the closest apple from a tree? Why does God’s will feel so hard to know for sure?
It was a familiar scripture, usually used to strengthen commitment, that taught me my most important lesson about how to know God’s will.
Be transformed
by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able
to test and approve
what God’s will is. Romans 12:2
There it was: renew your mind—know God’s will.
My mind runs on self-will, self-thought, self-determination. My mind embraces what I think, what I want, what I believe. Suddenly it made sense. My mind could be working against me where God’s will was concerned. In order to know God’s will, I needed a transformed mind, a mind that acknowledged and received God’s mind. When this transformation happened in my mind, my will and motives and actions would follow without a try-harder struggle.
This isn’t becoming some robot brain programmed to think in a carefully controlled way. Nor is this me putting mind over matter, trying to keep my thoughts in the background so I might recognize what God is saying. This is part of the whole transformation God brings when a person wants all of God to live within every place where the pesky, willful I threatens to take over. This is saying to God—I want You to fill my mind in such a way that it squeezes out everything that does not represent who You are or what You say.
Transformation is the only word that embraces this mystery. Renewal is the process I must submit to.
It’s not easy, but it is possible. Anytime I want to know God’s will about a choice I have to make, I start by asking God for a mind make-over. I ask God to sift through my mind to let the wind of His Spirit blow away the chaff, the empty husks, that do not help me know God’s mind.
God does not leave me with an empty mind, He gives me a renewed one. My renewed mind has a new sensitivity to what God wants and what God says.
In that renewed and uncrowded space, I sense God’s nudges and encouragement more clearly. Clarity is within my reach. It’s not a struggle; it’s a freedom.
I admit it is easier for me to ask for this mind make-over when something big looms, when I sense the stakes are high and the wrong move could send me on a detour I wouldn’t like. What is hard is to want this make-over for daily issues, priorities, and relationships.
With this reminder, pray this prayer with me daily
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