I don't know if everyone has been listening to this song for months (I'm not a radio person, so I miss popular songs quite often), but I just heard "Thy Will" by Hillary Scott and I was blown away by it. If you haven't heard the song - click that link and listen to it. Like right now.
If you don't know the background story to this song, Scott wrote it as a letter to God, reflecting how she was feeling after she had a miscarriage. It's a really intense song filled with really intense emotions.
And while many of us haven't been in the same situation as Scott, none of us have been able to escape the heartbreak that she sings about.
Our world is fallen, and because of that there are times when life is devastatingly hard, and we're overcome with hurt, grief, fear, anger or all of that at once. These are the times when we lose the ability to pray eloquently and instead our prayers are composed of the simplest of sentences, because we're incapable of finding ways to fully communicate what we're feeling to God.
Lord, this hurts.
Lord, how could you let this happen?
Lord, everything's falling apart.
Lord, please, do something.
But how often is our initial response to the overwhelming pain around us really "Lord, thy will be done?" For me at least, it's definitely not often enough.
Don't get me wrong, that's certainly a sentence I've prayed before. But looking back, I always prayed for God's will to be done when it came to things I didn't really care too much about - never for anything that would greatly affect my life if it didn't go the way I wanted it to.
Even though I was praying "Lord, thy will be done," what I really meant was more along the lines of "Lord, you can do whatever you want with this thing that's not important to me, and since I'm being so cool with it you really should give me what I want with this other, more important thing."
But the thing about what God wants is that it's going to happen regardless of whether or not we're on board. Telling God that we desire for His will to be done has more to do with the state of our hearts and relationship with Him, and less to do with the actual situation we're facing. God's will isn't something you bargain with God about, but instead something you prepare your heart to be ready for.
1.) The first thing to do in pursuing God's will is to love Him enough to prioritize His will before our own.
In proclaiming His will before ours in everything we come across, we actually align our priorities with His and face each situation ready to look for what He wants out of it.
2.) The second thing to do is to get to know His will, as it's exposed in the Bible.
What's great about pursuing God's will is that the Bible is clear about many things that God desires, so after looking at just a few passages we can start pursuing God's will. For instance, the Bible is clear that God desires:
- for all people to repent, be saved, and know truth (1 Timothy 2:3-4, 2 Peter 3:9)
- for us to rejoice always (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
- for us to pray continuously (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
- for us to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
- for us to be sanctified (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
3.) The third thing to do is to actively pursue His will with our whole being; to constantly be in prayer to see His will exposed and to work to bring it to fruition.
While God's will is certainly going to happen, the point of pursuing His will is to allow Him to use us to accomplish it. There's nothing better than being used by God to accomplish His purposes, and in order for that to happen we must be intentional about constantly praying for and acting on God's will.
