An oak leaf falls to its final resting place on pale grass—russet and scaled with age. I consider the sights it saw from its perch high above and imagine its six short months were filled with wonder.  I’m in the woods tonight to pray about God’s will for my life.

I’m not trying to discern an impacting career change or a move across the country.  I simply want to create space to assess the rhythms of my days and make sure I’m still in step with my Guide.

Twenty years ago, I sat in this same span of forest and asked similar questions about God’s will for my life.  I had big questions about my calling and my future.  I wanted to know where God wanted me to live and what he wanted me to do with my days.

In the years since those big decisions of my early twenties, I’ve learned a few lessons about God’s will for my life.  I’ve learned God is more concerned with how we live than where we live.  He’s more concerned with how we use our lives to bring souls into his kingdom than exactly where we choose to do so.

You might feel overwhelmed about an important decision in your life.  Seek God’s will.  Pray.  Find wise counsel.  Make sure your choice lines up with Scripture.  Use common sense.  And then make the best decision you can make.

And then, relax. God’s will for your life is about how you live more than where you live or what you choose as a job.  Let’s look at 10 absolutes that are always God’s will for our lives from Scripture.

 

10 Truths About God’s Will for My Life

1. God’s will is for you to come to saving faith in Christ (1 Timothy 2:4).

2. God’s will is for you to live with an attitude of thankfulness (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

3. His will is for you to live with a joyful countenance (1 Thessalonians 5:16).

4. God’s will is for you to be prayerful always (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

5. God’s will is for you to make his love known to the world around you (Matthew 5:43-48).

6. His will is for you to go into the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:20).

7. God’s will is that you love others (Luke 10:27).

8. God’s will is that you love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Luke 10:27).

9. His will is for you to put others before yourself (Philippians 2:3-4).

10. God’s will is for you to count everything a loss compared to knowing him (Philippians 3:8).

Let’s sit with the last truth on our list for a few minutes.

When I first decided to walk with the Lord, the words of Philippians 3:8 nearly jumped off the page at me.  The translation I was reading at the time put it this way: “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ” (NIV).

 

Are you chasing the wrong center?

I realized my life didn’t align with this verse.  All my life, I’d been chasing success, perfectionism, status, and achievement.  I did not count these pursuits garbage compared to knowing Christ.  In response to my realization, I asked the Lord to change my heart.  I made Philippians 3:8 my life-verse, and God worked in me in powerful ways as a result.

The more I learned to seek Jesus first, the more the rest of my life fell into place.

My circumstances weren’t always easy.  In fact, in some ways, life became harder as I pursued Christ more intimately.  But I also found great purpose and meaning in my life.  I had focus.  I worried less about where God led me and more about how I pointed the world to him as I lived my life.

Through knowing God, we come to know what we’re supposed to do with our lives.

If we seek God with our whole hearts, the rest falls into place.  We will be compelled to set our desires aside.  The difference between our desires and God’s plans becomes astonishingly clear.  We ache for the pain of others.  We willingly step into the heartbreak of the hurting.  We’re compelled to bring the love of Christ to a broken and hurting world. Life becomes less about figuring something out and more about being available.

 

Do you want to know the will of God?

Love him with all you have.  Make the best decisions you can possibly make.  When two equal paths are set before you, ask for direction, and then make the best decision you can make.

Be thankful.  Stay joyful.  Be prayerful.  Love well.  Put others first.  Look for God.  He is with you.  He wants to be your everything.  This is God’s will for your life: Make him your everything, and everything else will be given to you at the right time.