After working hard for many months, the deal fell through. We had done our best, worked as hard as we knew how and we really bemoaned the outcome. As we reviewed all that had transpired we comforted ourselves with the phrase ‘it is not God’s will’. For a long time after that, I kept wondering if it really was not God’s will for the deal to work.
That year the diseases affecting birds were so persistent, that the poultry was decimated. The CEO of the Farm was a believer who always prayed for ‘God’s will to be done’ and as he related his experience in his trembling voice he ended his speech with the phrase ‘I guess that was God’s will for me that year’.
People who believe that God is Almighty often attribute everything that happens to them or in the world to the will of God. This statement is held as an axiom and many people just give up at the point when they say ‘it is God’s will’.
When unfavorable things happen we often admit helplessness by alluding it to God’s will. Sometimes, we find some good in failure or a bad situation and claim that God may be teaching us some lessons, or virtues, like endurance, self-control, etc.
It is the ‘will of God’ often seem to mean ‘I surrender’ – wetin you wan do again? God’s judgment, no appeal. An endpoint of inevitability that none must question. This has often led great a many men and women to live suboptimally and to savor failure because they, as believers, must never question outcomes billed as the ‘will of God’.
Within the last 3 decades, I have made some concerted effort to find out what the will of God is & honestly, it troubles me when we attribute everything to God, all the time. I believe in Creation. I believe that one can have a personal relationship with the Creator. I believe He is the Almighty. I believe that God’s will always, always gets done! But you see everything happening, not all is his will.
Recall the business deal that fell through, was it God’s will that someone circumvented us? Are there things that lack of knowledge prevented us from doing? Is working hard a substitute for working smart? Is it God’s will that we are sometimes careless & things don’t turn out well?
My 1st rule on this ‘God’s will’ matter is this: if it is not good – for nothing bad is to be associated with God on my behalf; if the outcome is not consistent with God who is generous & loving; if it is not good for people generally, it is not God’s will! But a lot of those happen – what is not God’s will happens. You get it?
Not every outcome is God’s will! That is why Jesus told us to pray for God’s will to happen. Can something happen which is not God’s will? Is he not the Almighty? Would that possibility not undermine him? No. Sometimes, things just happen – it is known as time and chance. There are issues that need resolution and as long as the case is in Court, God can not intervene. God also has given us free will. Do you give someone a gift and then determine how he uses the gift? What manner of gift would that be?
Sometimes we use ‘it is God’s will’ as a means to escape depression & pain. ‘I submit to your will, oh, God’ & go on! But you will have a bad impression of God borne out of an incomplete knowledge of the kind of person He is. You will never understand God well if you always attribute everything, esp. failures to him.
Another danger is that many times it makes us not to try again; in giving up, we resign that God doesn’t want us to take that path. You can only imagine how many inventions, business ideas & victories that have been lost on the table of ‘it is not God’s will’ just because someone tried and failed, maybe many times.
If it is not written clearly, or I am not able to discern it without doubt, then that God permits it is no sign that it is God’s will for me.
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill
You do not fail because God wants to teach you, you are simply suffering – A popular saying. Lessons are inbuilt in all situations, good or bad. Seek God’s help to learn your lessons, but don’t assume that your suffering is God’s way to teach you.
When bad things happen or things do not turn out as you plan you may admit that ‘God has permitted it to happen’. You may seek ways to make improvements if you wish to try again; but please don’t be in a hurry to declare that it is not God’s will – a fait accompli.
If it is not written clearly, or I am not able to discern it without a doubt – I no dey use that heavy word.
*Matt. 6:10.