God’s will deals with today, not just the future, speaker says

By Tony Imms

GLORIETA, NM (BP)–God has a plan for spiritual growth every day of a Christian’s life,
a seminary professor told a group of college students during Student Week, Aug. 7-13, at
Glorieta, a LifeWay Conference Center.

"It takes the Lord a second to save you, but a lifetime to make you a
Christian," Phil Briggs, professor of Christian education at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, said. Christian growth is a process.

Briggs listed four qualities of God’s will:

— "The will of God is for all, not some." He notedevery individual human
being is different

— fingerprints, DNA, voice patterns, personalities and talents. God has an
individualized plan crafted for each person, he said.

— "The will of God is here, not there." Students shouldn’t always of think
of God’s will as something far away, Briggs said. God can and will use people right where
they are.

— "The will of God is now, not then." Sometimes students spend too much time
trying to figure out God’s will for the future and fail to realize he has a plan for
today, Briggs said.

— "The will of God is dynamic, not static." God’s will is a constant process
of growth and development, Briggs said.

In seeking to know and understand God’s will, Briggs identified questions students
should ask themselves:

— Am I avoiding the now while thinking ahead?

— Am I willing to wait until his will comes into focus?

— Have I made up my mind and want God to say OK?

— Have I felt that God’s will is always a downer?

— Is it possible I’ve avoided the "today-ness" of God’s will?

Briggs said that many factors affect the determining of God’s will. The expectations of
parents and family play a big part in decisions, as do the expectations of a one’s church
family. However, he emphasized, "only you can interpret God’s will for your
life."

God uses an individual’s talents, interests, abilities and even desires to carry out
his plan and these may be directional indicators of his will, Briggs said.

"Sometimes God’s will is exactly what we want to do," Briggs said. "God
never expected a cherry tree to produce apples."

National student ministries of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist
Convention sponsored Student Week at LifeWay’s Glorieta, N.M., conference center.

[Baptist Press, August 1999]