Can I Handle Knowing God’s Will?

Can I Handle Knowing God’s Will?

by

Jerry N. Duncan, Ph.D., ABPP

There have been some interesting movies through the years about travel into the future. Oftentimes the travelers are either excited about or horrified by what they see mankind has become. It changes the way they live when they return to their own time. On occasion, we have also witnessed someone taking the information they discover about the future and using it for personal financial gain when they return to their own time. We do not handle knowledge about the future very well.

In these mind-stretching stories we learn that to see the future changes those who see it. And, on occasion their resultant changes end up altering what is to be in the future.

Just as complicated, and often painful, is the ability to travel into the past and change a piece of history. The results often have negative consequences in some respect, regardless of the good intentions of the “fixer.” Maybe there are good reasons why we are unable to transcend the present.

On the other hand, we have been given lots of detailed information about our past and our future with God with little impact on how we live in the present. How should we think about being fully aware of God’s will?

Most of us have experienced what it is like to think internally, or even say out loud to our parent’s, “You just don’t understand!” when they thwart our plans because they think they know better. We usually say, (again, internally or out loud) “I’ll never treat my kids this way.”

I am assuming that if you are reading this article that you survived your childhood and adolescence. I am also going to assume that you have now had the opportunity to be on the other end of the stick saying, “No” to your own child or grandchild and dealt with that loved one’s sadness, disappointment, or anger toward you and your decision.

It is tough, isn’t it? Yet we now understand that it is not possible for children at some ages to even understand the concept of a future, much less make decisions with thoughts about consequences longer than ten seconds away. We decide what our wisdom and experience tells us, regardless of their current disapproval.

Knowing and then doing God’s will is becoming a genuinely lost “art form.” Most teenagers today do not even know the names, much less the stories and the the meanings of the primary characters written about in the Old Testament.

There are children in our own country that do not even have a concept of God because they have not been taught one by their parents. They literally have no idea who you are talking about when you mention the name, “God.”

Most of you who are reading this at this moment know who God is. It has been a while since you asked Him about His will for your life and then listened internally for a response, or immediately read some Scripture expectantly.

He is waiting for you to trust Him to take whatever you are willing to surrender, and then take that and you as far you are willing to let Him.

Are you ready?