Throughout my walk with God, much of my reflection and prayer has been about determining God’s Will for my life. In the beginning, it felt like this was somewhat about a perfectionist need to get it right the first time. There was also a bit of the fear of God in there too. At times when I read the Old Testament, God seemed very concerned about His Will being obeyed and when it was not there were consequences. Back then it felt very much like my faith was a lot about works, about proving to God that I was worth the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Yet since then, I have some to see such is not really the case.
Paul actually spent an entire epistle on making the distinction between being saved by the law (aka, works) or by faith (Galatians 3:11 and others). It is not our obedience to God that saves us. It is Christ’s! On the other hand, we are told a number of times, by Paul and others, that works are an integral part of our faith journey (much of James and others). So, is it works or faith or maybe even in some mysterious way, both?
These days I am beginning to see more and more that the key to following God is not all about living by obedience or faith. It is about a relationship with God made possible by the obedience of His Son. This relationship is built on how we relate to God and living as He leads, yet there is much grace and wiggle room in this narrow way. As we walk with God, His Will becomes clear to us and as we grow in our faith, He empowers us to do all that He desires.
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