On May 31 and June 7, our Through the Bible Sunday School class had a panel discussion about God’s will:  just what is God’s will?  Several panelists emphasized the importance of being in God’s Word and prayer—we’re not serious about seeking God’s leading if we aren’t listening to his voice and responding on our knees.  

One of the points I made is that we need to take in Bible passages beyond those that explicitly refer to God’s will or purpose, and note other texts that reveal God’s designs in other ways.  For example, what about verses on the prospect of suffering for the believer? 

At first we might suppose that suffering is excluded from God’s will:  surely he desires that we live the “abundant life” and “rejoice in the Lord always.”  But be careful:  when Paul wrote “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4), he was in prison.  Further, Jesus taught us that following him involves taking up a cross daily (Luke 9:23).  We ought to expect afflictions to come our way as a result of our faith in Jesus—it goes with the territory (John 16:33; 1 Peter 4:12; etc.).  

But someone might object:  “Even if God allows these things, they are not his will for us.”  And yet, what God permits, he permits purposefully—since he is able to prevent any event in his universe (this is a key point John Piper makes in his important little book, Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ). 

It was God’s will for the Messianic Servant to be “crushed” and “put to grief” (Isaiah 53:10).  And Peter sees this prophecy fulfilled at the cross:  “…this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of law­less men” (Acts 2:23).  God orchestrated the sinful, pain-imposing acts of humans to accomplish his grand plan of salvation! 

And so, don’t be quick to conclude that God’s will must circumvent suffering.  For Paul, God’s power was made perfect in his weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).  And Joseph could declare that what his sinful brothers meant for evil, God intended for good (Genesis 50:20)!