Will Of God 11 – Helpers

Encourage one another… admonish the idlers, help the weak… pray constantly, and do not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:11, 19).

Knowing and then doing God’s will: seems so very simple and manageable, and then also so very complicated and difficult. How do we sharpen our perception, and become more adept at God’s will? We pray, we get involved in the Bible – and we develop faithful habits when we attend worship regularly. Sunday by Sunday, we sing hymns, we listen to Scripture and a sermon, we bow our heads, we shuffle forward for Communion – and over time we are reshaped into somebody more like Christ, more attuned to God.

In worship, power comes down on us and we are catapulted out of the place by an energy greater than any we possess to do the will of God, and to cope with the tragic. Without the Spirit’s empowering presence we never accomplish or understand the will of God.

A crucial item we find in worship that we don’t get at home alone is… other people. We need each other to know and do God’s will. God calls us to do many tasks that no lone individual can pull off; it is clearly God’s will for you and me to be part of a Body that acts as Christ together.

We need the wisdom and counsel of others. If you are wrestling with a decision, share your dilemma with Christians who love you and are serious about God, and see what they have to say. Every one of us needs some wise mentors.

God also places some unexpected helpers in our path: the poor, and those who suffer. This isn’t well understood: we think “I’ll help the poor, that is God’s will” – and it is. But the poor also expose our own poverty, and thereby free us up to know we are God’s children, nothing more, nothing less. We think “I pity those who suffer” – and we should. But sufferers sober us up and remind us of what matters and what doesn’t. Spend time with the poor, linger with friends and family who are hurting, and new windows open into God’s heart and will.

For us to pursue God’s will, we need to encourage each other, to value the quest for God’s will in each other. Many of us need some healing, as we may harbor negative self-images that screen out the love of God; a crippling sense of inferiority makes it impossible to dare anything significant for God. Encouragers help others to do God’s will, and thus do God’s will themselves.