What Does God Want?

01/28/2007

“So I pray that God, who gives you hope, will keep you happy
and full of peace as you believe in him.” (Romans 15:13 NLT)

What does God want from us in this life? It can be stated very simply, God wants a devoted heart. And why would God want that? Because out of that should flow a happy person. Notice the word, should, because it is not always so. And why would that be?
Not because of who God is, but because of who we are and what we do with a heart that is devoted to Him—we mess things up. We get tangled in our own web of confusion, and in trying so hard, and in the mistakes we make, and then we miss the simplicity of our Father just wanting the best for us in our lives. Our Father loves us, and we are His children, and He longs for us to be happy children.

Romans 12:2 says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.” Notice the good, the pleasing, and the perfect part of what Paul was saying here—especially the pleasing part, because sometimes we so long to please God in our devotion to Him, we forget that He longs to please us even more. His will in our lives is not there to make us miserable; it’s there to make us happy. Not happy as in the surface things of this world, but happy because all that He asks us to do is good, and it not only pleases Him, it pleases our inner being, and we see God’s perfection in it.

“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God.” Romans 14:17-18 (NLT) The Kingdom of God is not full of rules and regulations, it’s not full of lists of things to do, the Kingdom of God is about having a relationship with our Lord and being at peace, living a life filled with goodness, and knowing true joy in our hearts. God didn’t create us to be miserable!

It is said that a parent is only as happy as their saddest child. That’s probably very true. So, how happy of a Parent does that make our Father in Heaven if we are miserable in our devotion to Him? Man fell, sure, that we all know, but man was given a fresh new start in Jesus Christ. The slate is wiped clean when we embrace our Savior—and even though we still live among the thorns and thistles—we can find a life of joy and peace and one that pleases God when our hearts belong to Him. That is His desire for us because He wants His children to be happy. If we’re not, we need to go back to square one and start over. I’m not talking about the times when the fiery trials are at their worst. Those times are difficult, to say the least, and we learn so many things as we travel through them, but I’m talking about the day-to-day way of being when life is just moving along and we’re looking for some direction for what comes next. What comes next, or should I say first, is to be with the One who knows us best and wants us to know Him. It’s the hardest thing in the world to do because everything will distract us from God, but it’s the most important thing to do because true happiness is found in knowing our Lord.