I have heard people say that if it is the will of God then
it will be easy. The doors will open, the sails of your ship will be full and a
smooth ride through the oceans of life will follow you. I don’t know about you,
but I am pretty sure that this is a false. How do I know? If the will of God
brings smooth sailing, then Jesus must not have been in His Father’s will.
There was nothing easy about the life that Jesus lived on this earth, and I am pretty
sure that the road that led to the Cross was not covered in a bed of rose
petals with doors swinging open with new possibilities. But for some reason, we
as Christians have this idea that we are only in the will of God when life goes
smoothly. I don’t think that is true, I think that sometimes the will of God is
hard, and the will of God is paved with turmoil, pain and a daily sacrifice of
dying to self. The will of God is hard.
“For I know the plans I have for you,
declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and
a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear
you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV
Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV
This is
one of those beloved scriptures of the Christian faith. We read these words and
think that our life is going to be filled with peace and hope day after day and
that is half correct, our lives will be filled with peace and hope. But it’s
not the peace that we think it is. God’s will for our lives is clearly stated
here in these verses. He does desire to give us a life of peace, a life filled
with hope and a future that leads us right to Him. But this peace that He
promises is not a peace about our circumstances, it’s a peace within our hearts.
These verses are not a promise to make life easy, they are a promise to get us
through the hardest parts of living.
The Lord
has a plan and a purpose for your life. He knows the trials, the struggles, and
the sickness you will have to face. Why would God say that we would call upon
Him and pray to Him after He promises to give us a future and a hope if He was
going to make this life of easy to live? We would have no reason to pray to Him
or call to Him if He made life a bed of roses! God’s will is not going to be
easy. In fact, it is going to be the hardest thing you do every single day. But
He does promise that through it all you will have a peace, a confidence in His
ability, to bring you through it. You will have a peace that keeps you rooted
and grounded in Him. A peace that bows your head and trusts that no matter what
He has planned, it is and always will be for your best.
The will
of God is to make you into the image of His Son. It wasn’t an easy road for
Jesus, and we are being poured into the mold God our Father used for Him. If
you are waiting for God to make this road you are on easy, then you are going
to be sitting in the same place for a very long time. Easy is a false sense of
peace and can lead many of us down roads that take us away from His plans and
purposes from us. I would say to you today, if you are waiting for the Lord to
make the next step easy, then you are probably going to be waiting for a very
long time. God’s will may not be easy, but it will always bring you peace. I
pray today that you would find the peace you need to get you through the plans
and the purposes that God has for you. He has shown you which way to go,
because it has brought you peace, stop waiting for Him to make it easy and
trust that His plans, His purposes and His peace will carry you through to the
place He has prepared for you. Amen?
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