To live justly, mercifully and humbly........

This is something that I have often thought about in my life - what is the will of God? Am I doing it? How do I know what it is? How do I find out? Christians bandy these few words around a lot, I know I have, and for some reason I have always pictured it as rather a narrow road with a fairly substantial fence running alongside it on both sides. This fence not only seemed to keep you on the road, but if you did in fact wander off the road, it was exceedingly difficult to get back on because of the fence. I am now realising what a restrictive view I held on this matter. Where, oh where, did I get it from and how sad that I have held on to it for so long!

So this is the topic we looked at last night in our "freaky deaky" home church group (* we aren't really that weird - it's just a nickname that has been bestowed on us by a friend).

We started out looking at how we would find out the will of a few particular people, some living, some dead, some notoriously famous, and some not so. We all agreed that it would be a case of getting to know that person, trying to get inside their head and understand their goals, ambitions, and what steps they are willing to take to achieve these things.

The same can be said for God (I know, it's really rather obvious I guess) and reading the Bible is probably the most useful resource for doing this. I mean, what better way to get to know Him and His ultimate goal for us as His people, than to read the words that He has written. So we did. We looked at the "suggested readings" for finding the will of God -

• Matthew 6: 10, 31-33
• James 4: 13-15
• 1 Corinthians 12:7
• Micah 6:8

and from these we gathered that we should live here on earth with a grateful, thankful heart and one that praises God for all the wonderful blessings; that although we make plans for the future, live knowing that today may be our last day; that we all have the Holy Spirit as a guide for the boundaries of a life pleasing to God and that these boundaries will actually benefit all of us; and that God loves it when we treat all people fairly, love others faithfully and be humble.

But the thing that completely blew me away, was the realisation that His ultimate goal for each one of us, is to have a relationship with Him that is completely unhindered by stuff. He just wants to be close to us!!!!!Everything that He has done, and all the things that we go through in life, he uses to get closer to us. Mind boggling. OK, so there are people out there who have already grasped this fact, and although I have heard it before, it became real for me yesterday in a way it hasn't before. And I am awed!.....

My picture of the will of God - a narrow restrictive road - has been replaced with (and I have to quote my husband here) " something more like a footy field, surrounded by gentle warning signs which will actually nudge you back on to the field if you wander off. There's only one set of goals on this field, and they are way up the other end. There's a lot of zig zagging backwards and forwards, but generally I am heading towards that goal where I know I'll be met by my very own cheer squad".

Think I'll put on my footy jumper and get out there and play.....