The Lord's Will

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Ephesians 5:17 The Lord's will... What is the Lord's will? First, let's look at the meaning of the word "will". The original word in Greek comes from the root word Theleo. It means: to determine, choose, prefer, wish, to be inclined, desire, intend, please, will. The context of the word that was used in the original translation for this verse is Thelema and it specifically means: desire, pleasure, will. What is the Lord's desire? What is the Lord's pleasure? What is the Lord's will? In John 6:40, Jesus tells us: "For my father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes Him shall have eternal life." He desires to give you eternal life. In order to receive it, we must believe in His Son. "For God so loved the World, that he gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not die but have eternal life." John 3:16 We believe in God. We believe that He sent His Son to die for us. We believe that he wants to give us eternal life. We believe we want eternal life! But what exactly does it mean to believe? Believe in the Greek language is, Pisteno, which means: to commit, put in trust with. It comes from the root word, Pistis, which is from the word Peitho, meaning: to agree, assure, believe, have confidence, make friend with, obey, trust, yield. What is the common factor? TRUST! To believe, we have to trust! How do we trust? Do you trust people you do not know? Of course not! You are not going to put your life, or your families lives, in the hands of someone you do not know! When you meet someone, and as you come to know them more, you will start to trust them. Then one day, you might be more willing to trust them with your life, after they have proven themselves trustworthy. The same applies to our relationship with God. When we meet Him for the first time, we agree with him that we are sinners, we believe in His Son, and we ask for him to forgive us of our sin. We make friends with God, but what is the next step? How do we get to the next level of having confidence in God and putting our trust in Him? I mean really, truly, trusting Him with our lives. Our husbands, our children, our grandchildren, our homes, our jobs, our ministries, our finances, our cars, even our eternity! If we are going base our decisions on what God says, then we have to know what He says! We have to know who God is! Wisdom comes from knowing God. When we have searched and know who God is; we will ask Him, we will hear Him, and we will OBEY Him! By studying God's Word, talking to Him, and listening to Him; we will come to know him so well we won't second guess his commands anymore, we'll just do it! We'll say, "Because God said so!". His desire is for us to believe him. It brings him pleasure when we come to know him and put our trust in Him. When we trust Him and obey Him, we will be careful and we will seek Him. We will not be foolish! We will make wise decisions and make the most of our opportunities. We will be in agreement with him. We will be confident in who we are in Christ and to what he has called us for. We will know what the Lord's will is. Greek translations and definitions come from Strong's Concordance of the Bible. Thelema, thel'-ay-mah Theleo, thel'-ay-o Pisteno, pist-yoo'-o peitho, pi'-tho