“ Get rid of the ultimatums and dive into the ultimate promises of His Word.”
him sit next to me and start a conversation with me two times this week. Then, and only then, will I trust that it is Your will.
The truth is, even if that did happen, I would request yet another sign from God“ just to be sure.” It was never enough because I constantly made it about me. I was so set on looking for signs from God for the sake of my love life that I cared more about seeking confirmation outside His Word than within it. I was so hyper-focused on finding who I was meant to be with that it defined my relationship with God. My desire for love on this side of heaven became stronger than my desire to care for my spiritual health. Yikes!
God’ s will is not discovered through silly ultimatums or scavenger hunts like I once believed. Yes, His will can be a puzzling, mysterious thing, but it is not something that we can find outside of His Word. It is written and revealed within the pages of Scripture. Once we have a good understanding of it, we can confidently make decisions that bring glory and honor to His holy name.
Get rid of the ultimatums and dive into the ultimate promises of His Word.
God’ s Decretive Will
When we explore God’ s will through the lens of His Word, we discover that He has a decretive and a preceptive will.
Do you know the difference between the two?
The preceptive will of God refers to His commands, which are revealed in Scripture. The decretive will refers to God’ s will revealed by His decree. This is when God, in His sovereign nature, decrees something that cannot be touched or thwarted. What God says will be, will be.
“ Get rid of the ultimatums and dive into the ultimate promises of His Word.”
Let us take a look at an example of God’ s decretive will. Consider the creation story.“ God said,‘ Let there be light,’ and there was light”( Genesis 1:3). There was no negotiating with the darkness. God spoke it into motion, and that’ s all there was to it.
The decretive will of God also includes the secret parts of God’ s will. Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us,“ The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions”( NLT).
A powerful picture of the Father’ s secret will is found in the incredible story of Joseph.( Can you tell I love this story?)
God wove Joseph’ s lifetime of ups and
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