Brief Study on God's Plans
Our book club is reading a book about discerning the will of God. I have realized after talking with a few people who attended it, that the whole concept is still very confusing. After the first meeting many people went home not really understanding this complicated concept. To be honest, I'm not sure that anyone really does completely understand it, myself included. If you attended that first meeting, then I truly apologize for any confusion that you may have left with. I'm so sorry if you left feeling confused or dissatisfied. I am writing just a small study to help clear up some of the misconceptions that you may have. So whether you attended book club or not, please read this to help gain a more clear understanding of God's will for your life.
The first thing that we need to do is to break the whole topic down into a couple of terms so that we all begin on the same page. Now understand that different theologians and authors will define these terms in different ways, but for simplification reasons I'm just going to use three terms. The first term I'd like to introduce is God's Desire.
God's Desire
God's desire is what God would like to see happen in a perfect world with perfect people. One example of this would be seen in 1 Timothy 4:3-4 when it says, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” One of the things that God truly desires is for all people to accept His son as their savior. If you've looked out into the world, you can see that many, many people have not been saved and many before them have died without knowing Jesus as their savior. So God's Desire is what He would love to happen, but He will not force things to be this way. The main reason for this is because God loved man so much that He created them with free will. Free will is the ability for us to make our own decisions, good and bad alike. The ability to make our own decisions brings us to our second term: God's Permissive Will.
God's Permissive Will
God desires all mankind to make holy and perfect decisions, but sometimes we don't make the best of decisions. Sometimes we step outside of His Desire and instead do what we desire. God's gift of free will means that He will allow men and women alike to make good and bad decisions and receive the blessings or curses that come with those decisions. This is where God's Permissive Will comes into play. The sinful decisions that man makes are not by any means what God desired, but because he gave us free will He will permit it. He doesn't step in to stop it, because to do so would take away our ability to make decisions for ourselves and instead turn us into a bunch of robots that simply do what they are commanded. One of the best examples of this may be the Holocaust. During the Holocaust the world witnessed some of the most evil and brutal treatment of fellow humans imaginable. Men, women and children were arrested, stripped of their dignity, tortured and murdered in fashions that seem too evil to believe. At one recorded event, Nazi soldiers would take Jewish babies from their parents and then take turns throwing them into the air while their fellow soldiers would shoot them with their guns as if they were simply skeet shooting. This clearly was not something that God desired! But it was something that He had to painfully allow to happen because His only other option would be to take away our free will. So we know what God desires, and we know what He permits. The final thing that He does is plan.
God's Plan
When we walk with God, when we follow His ways, and when we search for what He desires, then we are able to experience His plans. God's Plans are all of those amazing things that God does for us to help make our lives and the lives of the people around us the lives that they were meant to be. Sometimes God's plans involve blessings showered on us. Sometimes those plans involve trials that make us stronger. Sometimes those plans involve things that stretch us to help us grow. Sometimes they may even involve answering a prayer for someone's healing by calling them home to heaven. I truly believe that my father was healed in this way. I also believe that God's Plan was to call home our unborn child when we miscarried. The wonderful thing about God's Plan is that He is never caught by surprise by the things that happen in our lives. Therefore if God's permits something sinful to happen that hurts us, He can then implement a plan to make good come out of the bad. That's what Scripture is referring to when Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” God's plans allow wonderful things come out of the bad things that He permits, as long as we turn to Him during those difficult times. One of the greatest examples of this can be seen through the death of Christ. Did God desire for His Son to be brutally beaten and murdered? Did he force the Pharisees, the Jews, and the Romans to turn on him and murder him? If your answer is “no,” then God didn't Desire it, but He did Permit it. And well before any of this happened, He definitely had a Plan. He planned for this despicable act that would take place to be the salvation for all mankind! God can make some awesome things come out of sin when we allow him.
One of the times that we tend to really think about and ponder these terms is when someone passes away. We especially begin to ask questions when someone we love passes away suddenly or painfully. Did God plan for a baby to have cancer? Did He want my son to die because of that drunk driver? Did he desire for me to loose my pregnancy? To be honest, while we are here on earth, limited by our tiny view of the spiritual, we will never be able to truly answer these questions. Was it God's Permissive Will that allowed it to happen, or was it part of God's Plan? To be honest, as a Pastor in situations where people are painfully ripped out of people's lives as a direct result of sin, I do find it beneficial to help people understand God's Permissive Will. Earlier this week a woman was just tragically murdered in Chicora by her husband. The thought that God wanted this to happen (God's Desire), or planned it to happen (God's Plan) is not helpful to the family. The thought that God didn't desire it to happen, but permitted it to happen (God's Permissive Will) because He loves us enough to make our own decisions doesn't change who God is. It does however change how we view Him in that moment, and allows Him to shift from someone that we want to avoid, to a God that is truly hurting with the family whom is grieving.
For the main part, it is a small shift in understanding, but it can make all of the difference in the life of someone who is hurting. Since there is no way to be absolutely sure of the mind of God, honestly whatever you find helpful at that moment is the way that you should think of it. Did God desire it, did He permit it, or did He plan it? The answer is; whichever of those allows you to turn to Him during a difficult time. Our days are numbered, that is absolute. From the moment we are born, God knows when we will return back to Him. That's not something that we can change or escape. I just hope that as you finish reading this that you understand that sometimes they are permitted and sometimes they are planned.
So whatever it is that you are facing in your life, whatever you are finding painful to deal with, use this knowledge you have as a tool. As new tools in your arsenal, use whatever concept you find helpful at that moment. Please use whatever understanding you feel will bring you or others closer to God's loving arms. If the answer is Desired, or if the answer is Willed, or if the answer is Planned, then that is the way that you should think of it.
And finally please be gracious and understanding to your fellow Christians when it comes to this topic. Their understanding of this issue may have helped them get through some extraordinarily difficult times, so don't be surprised if some emotions come flooding through with a conversation on this subject. So, as always I pray that the greatest commandments would guide everything that we do. May we love our God with all of our hearts and may we love our neighbor as ourselves as we make sense of all of this.
The first thing that we need to do is to break the whole topic down into a couple of terms so that we all begin on the same page. Now understand that different theologians and authors will define these terms in different ways, but for simplification reasons I'm just going to use three terms. The first term I'd like to introduce is God's Desire.
God's Desire
God's desire is what God would like to see happen in a perfect world with perfect people. One example of this would be seen in 1 Timothy 4:3-4 when it says, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” One of the things that God truly desires is for all people to accept His son as their savior. If you've looked out into the world, you can see that many, many people have not been saved and many before them have died without knowing Jesus as their savior. So God's Desire is what He would love to happen, but He will not force things to be this way. The main reason for this is because God loved man so much that He created them with free will. Free will is the ability for us to make our own decisions, good and bad alike. The ability to make our own decisions brings us to our second term: God's Permissive Will.
God's Permissive Will
God desires all mankind to make holy and perfect decisions, but sometimes we don't make the best of decisions. Sometimes we step outside of His Desire and instead do what we desire. God's gift of free will means that He will allow men and women alike to make good and bad decisions and receive the blessings or curses that come with those decisions. This is where God's Permissive Will comes into play. The sinful decisions that man makes are not by any means what God desired, but because he gave us free will He will permit it. He doesn't step in to stop it, because to do so would take away our ability to make decisions for ourselves and instead turn us into a bunch of robots that simply do what they are commanded. One of the best examples of this may be the Holocaust. During the Holocaust the world witnessed some of the most evil and brutal treatment of fellow humans imaginable. Men, women and children were arrested, stripped of their dignity, tortured and murdered in fashions that seem too evil to believe. At one recorded event, Nazi soldiers would take Jewish babies from their parents and then take turns throwing them into the air while their fellow soldiers would shoot them with their guns as if they were simply skeet shooting. This clearly was not something that God desired! But it was something that He had to painfully allow to happen because His only other option would be to take away our free will. So we know what God desires, and we know what He permits. The final thing that He does is plan.
God's Plan
When we walk with God, when we follow His ways, and when we search for what He desires, then we are able to experience His plans. God's Plans are all of those amazing things that God does for us to help make our lives and the lives of the people around us the lives that they were meant to be. Sometimes God's plans involve blessings showered on us. Sometimes those plans involve trials that make us stronger. Sometimes those plans involve things that stretch us to help us grow. Sometimes they may even involve answering a prayer for someone's healing by calling them home to heaven. I truly believe that my father was healed in this way. I also believe that God's Plan was to call home our unborn child when we miscarried. The wonderful thing about God's Plan is that He is never caught by surprise by the things that happen in our lives. Therefore if God's permits something sinful to happen that hurts us, He can then implement a plan to make good come out of the bad. That's what Scripture is referring to when Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” God's plans allow wonderful things come out of the bad things that He permits, as long as we turn to Him during those difficult times. One of the greatest examples of this can be seen through the death of Christ. Did God desire for His Son to be brutally beaten and murdered? Did he force the Pharisees, the Jews, and the Romans to turn on him and murder him? If your answer is “no,” then God didn't Desire it, but He did Permit it. And well before any of this happened, He definitely had a Plan. He planned for this despicable act that would take place to be the salvation for all mankind! God can make some awesome things come out of sin when we allow him.
One of the times that we tend to really think about and ponder these terms is when someone passes away. We especially begin to ask questions when someone we love passes away suddenly or painfully. Did God plan for a baby to have cancer? Did He want my son to die because of that drunk driver? Did he desire for me to loose my pregnancy? To be honest, while we are here on earth, limited by our tiny view of the spiritual, we will never be able to truly answer these questions. Was it God's Permissive Will that allowed it to happen, or was it part of God's Plan? To be honest, as a Pastor in situations where people are painfully ripped out of people's lives as a direct result of sin, I do find it beneficial to help people understand God's Permissive Will. Earlier this week a woman was just tragically murdered in Chicora by her husband. The thought that God wanted this to happen (God's Desire), or planned it to happen (God's Plan) is not helpful to the family. The thought that God didn't desire it to happen, but permitted it to happen (God's Permissive Will) because He loves us enough to make our own decisions doesn't change who God is. It does however change how we view Him in that moment, and allows Him to shift from someone that we want to avoid, to a God that is truly hurting with the family whom is grieving.
For the main part, it is a small shift in understanding, but it can make all of the difference in the life of someone who is hurting. Since there is no way to be absolutely sure of the mind of God, honestly whatever you find helpful at that moment is the way that you should think of it. Did God desire it, did He permit it, or did He plan it? The answer is; whichever of those allows you to turn to Him during a difficult time. Our days are numbered, that is absolute. From the moment we are born, God knows when we will return back to Him. That's not something that we can change or escape. I just hope that as you finish reading this that you understand that sometimes they are permitted and sometimes they are planned.
So whatever it is that you are facing in your life, whatever you are finding painful to deal with, use this knowledge you have as a tool. As new tools in your arsenal, use whatever concept you find helpful at that moment. Please use whatever understanding you feel will bring you or others closer to God's loving arms. If the answer is Desired, or if the answer is Willed, or if the answer is Planned, then that is the way that you should think of it.
And finally please be gracious and understanding to your fellow Christians when it comes to this topic. Their understanding of this issue may have helped them get through some extraordinarily difficult times, so don't be surprised if some emotions come flooding through with a conversation on this subject. So, as always I pray that the greatest commandments would guide everything that we do. May we love our God with all of our hearts and may we love our neighbor as ourselves as we make sense of all of this.