The Will of God

Let’s start with a spiritual intervention:

Somewhere along the way, Christians decided God is basically a celestial event planner with an anxiety disorder.

Flat tire?
“God must be trying to teach me something.”

Got ghosted?
“God’s protecting me.”

A hurricane wipes out a coastline?
“Mysterious ways.”

Your lasagna comes out like a brick?
“The Lord has spoken.”

Friend… no.

Because God is not a cosmic genie running around granting or denying wishes based on how many devotionals you did this week.

God is not in heaven going:
“Hmm… should I send Brenda a parking ticket today for character development?”

Relax.

Christians love saying “everything happens for a reason” because silence is uncomfortable.

But sometimes the reason is:

• someone was reckless

• nature is chaotic

• the world is broken

• you made a dumb choice

• or it’s just Tuesday

  “Not everything is spiritual warfare. Sometimes it’s just poor planning.”

Here’s the metaphor:

God’s will is not a puppet show. It’s a rescue mission in the middle of a war zone.

If you walk through a battlefield and say,
“Wow, God must’ve wanted all these explosions,”
you have misunderstood the entire situation.

So let’s break it down.

God’s perfect will is not a scavenger hunt.

It’s not hidden behind your missed exit on the highway.

God wants:

• love

• justice

• mercy

• healing

• wholeness

• reconciliation

And we know this because we’ve seen Jesus.

Quit saying I don’t know what God’s will is!

It’s in the Bible.

Can’t hear God?

Are you reading God?

Are you reading the Bible as much as you scroll your phone?

It’s in the life of Jesus. Imitate that life. Live like Jesus lived. That’s God’s will.

“If it doesn’t look like Jesus, don’t call it God’s will.”

God’s intentional will is not cancer.
It is compassion.

God’s intentional will is not destruction.
It is resurrection.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

God gave humans free will, and we have used it like toddlers with scissors.

People choose violence.
Systems break.
Nature does what nature does.
Gravity does not pray before it pulls you down.

“God may redeem your mess… but He didn’t necessarily schedule it.”

God is not overriding every consequence like some divine helicopter parent.

Sometimes life hurts because life is fractured.

That’s not God being cruel.

That’s the world being unfinished.

Now here’s the hope:

God’s ultimate will is the final word.

Evil gets chapters.
God gets the ending.

Redemption wins.
Love wins.
The Kingdom comes.

“You can resist God’s will, but you cannot outlast it.”

The middle may be chaos.

But the end is not.

When we say “it must be God’s will,”
half the time we mean,
“I don’t know what to do with pain.”

But blaming God doesn’t make suffering easier.
It just makes God monstrous.

God is not the one throwing darts at your life going,
“Oops! Hit another one with grief!”

“God is a Father, not a puppeteer.”

Love requires freedom.

Freedom means people can choose:

• kindness

• cruelty

• wisdom

• stupidity

• holiness

• harm

Forced love is not love.

“If God controlled every action, we wouldn’t need salvation — we’d need software updates.”

This is where grown-up faith lives.

God didn’t cause the betrayal…but He can redeem it.

God didn’t ordain the accident…but He can meet you in it.

God didn’t design abuse…but He can bring healing beyond it.

“God doesn’t send the storm — but He refuses to abandon you in it.”

God is not the author of evil.

He is the redeemer of what evil tried to destroy.

Christians sometimes act like every inconvenience is a coded message from heaven.

You’re late because you hit snooze six times.

Not because God needed you at Starbucks for a “divine appointment.”

“Not every closed door is divine. Sometimes it’s just locked.”

Maturity is realizing:

Some things are spiritual.
Some things are random.
Some things are consequences.
And some things are just life being life.

Want to know God’s will?

Look at Jesus.

On the cross we don’t see God enjoying suffering.

We see God entering it.

Absorbing it.
Carrying it.
Redeeming it.

“God’s will isn’t found in the tragedy — it’s found in how He refuses to let tragedy win.”

If you believe:

“Everything that happened was God’s will…”

You will eventually become:

• resentful

• terrified

• numb

• or emotionally exhausted

But if you understand:

God’s perfect will is good.
God’s circumstantial will is realistic.
God’s ultimate will is unstoppable.

Then you can grieve without blaming God.

You can suffer without accusing heaven.

You can hope without pretending.

That’s grown-up faith.

God’s will is not:

• every accident

• every disease

• every disaster

• every heartbreak

God’s will is:

• redemption

• restoration

• relationship

• resurrection

Evil happens because the world is fractured.

But God is relentless in bringing good from it.

Next time something awful happens, instead of saying:

“Well, I guess God wanted this…”

Try saying:

“This wasn’t what God wanted — but I trust He’s not finished.”

That’s not denial.

That’s maturity.

And honestly?

It’s time the Church stopped acting like God is a cosmic genie with a mood swing.

Grow up.

God’s better than that.

The Best Is Yet to Come, Because God’s Ultimate Will Be Done

Rev. John Roberts