“For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”
Hebrews 10:36 KJV
What promise is he talking about? Hebrews 10:37 (the very next verse) says, “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” He’s referring to the return of Christ and to the promise of eternal life.
Titus 1:2 says, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;”
God keeps His Word. He is completely and totally trustworthy.
Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
You can’t always trust another person to keep their word or to follow through with their promises, but God will never fail you.
Colossians 3:24 says, “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
When you are doing God’s will, you are serving the Lord Christ, and you shall receive the promise of God, “the reward of the inheritance,” which is eternal life.
Doing the will of God is not hard, but it requires a serious commitment to God.
Your child has a will. When your children want to do something that you’ve asked them not to do, and they obey you, they are choosing to do your will and please you rather than following their own will. When they disobey and do it anyway, they are living in rebellion, choosing their will over yours. That’s how it works when it comes to doing God’s will.
God has given you freewill. And the things you want to do may be contrary to His Word or His specific calling on your life. So you have to make a choice. Just like your child, you need to decide whether or not you will obey. If you disregard God’s will, you’ll be living in rebellion, choosing your will over His, but if you do God’s will, then you choose to give up your own. In a nutshell, “doing God’s will” simply means to obey God. Therefore, doing the will of God is simple, but it’s not always easy. As we do with our children, God often asks us to do things that we don’t want to do, and that requires us to relinquish our freewill.
I want to obey God, but I don’t know His will.
II Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” You will find God’s will in His Word. So the best place to start searching for God’s will is in His Word.
Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Your mind will be renewed only through your submission to the Word of God.
That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “…It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Absorbing yourself in the Word of God is the only way your mind will be renewed. And renewing your mind through God’s Word is the only way that you will know the will of God. “…that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”
I John 2:17 says, “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”