Pop wisdom has taught us to look at our lives as a journey. “Life is a Highway!” belts out the theme song in my son’s favorite movie, Cars. And most people wish God’s will for their lives was laid out for them like directions on a Google map. Start here, head north for 12.8 miles, turn left and go 7.4 miles, and you’ll arrive at your destination: happily married with 2.5 kids and a nice house in a quiet neighborhood.
I think God has drawn up a clear and detailed map for you, but it’s probably not quite what you were expecting. The starting position in the journey is not the point in time where you entered the world. It’s the “Alpha” in “Alpha and Omega.” The eternal preexistence and transcendence of God.
Isaiah sums up volumes of theology as he explains this reality in one verse:
Thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)
Isaiah starts with a bottom-line thought that’s fundamental to our view of God and his relationship to us: God is high and lifted up. He’s not bound by the laws of this world. He lives outside of our space and time. He’s sovereign over the universe. He’s holy and set apart. He’s not my co-pilot or my best buddy.
That’s the beginning point on the Google map. Then Isaiah talks about the journey: God’s immanence as he dwells with bumbling people like us. While God is separate and superior, at the same time he’s also up close and personal. As Paul said it to the philosophers in Athens, “God is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17). God isn’t just my best buddy, but he’s also not some distant deity, watching the events here on earth like it’s a TV show. He’s active in nature, in government, in culture, and especially in the lives of those of us who are “contrite and lowly in spirit.”
Which brings us to the destination Isaiah mentions at the end of the verse: a revived heart. God’s will is to defibrillate our cold, dead hearts and bring us life through the Spirit. According to Paul, the Holy Spirit is constantly working out God’s will in our lives. He says, “The Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:27).
So what is the will of God that the Spirit is interceding for? The next verse clears it up: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” And what kind of good is God working toward? Keep reading the next verse: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
And there it is. God’s will in every situation is to conform you to the image of his Son. To make you more like Jesus. That’s the simplest way to find God’s will that I know of. Just ask yourself, “Will this make me more or less like Jesus?” Of course, that’s easier said than done. Tomorrow, we’ll look at some misconceptions that trip people up as they seek God’s will.