Philippians 2:13 English Standard Version (ESV) for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Every time I remember this quote something within me adds the words “for His own Name’s sake.” It is nearly impossible for me to remember it without adding those words. This may be the reason.

Isaiah 48:10-11 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁰ Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried^[a] you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹ For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

Footnotes: a Or I have chosen

We have been chosen to be in Christ, a bride chosen by the Father for the Son because He loves His Son.

This devotional is called His will because at the center of reason God has done this for us to love and be loved. God is love and creation itself is a place where love can grow, be nurtured, and accomplish all God’s will in His Name Sake, His Son.

We all want to know God’s will for our lives and we want to make sense of all the things we see around us. In order to make sense of it all, we must surrender to the primary reason, God’s love for His Son.

Why does God heal one person and not the next? God is at work in all believers and if we attach human emotions to God’s motive, we are choosing our own will over His. We tend to make things all about ourselves, our pain, our emotions, our fears, and in doing so fall short of the reason we were chosen in the first place.

His will is to love and be loved.

Ephesians 6:12 English Standard Version (ESV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

We currently live in a time of a new struggle. It is not new that we struggle in life. That is one of the signs of live, we struggle. We give it a name so that we can speak to it with commonality. We are given a sense of unity if we all have one enemy. I could lay out a long list of things the human struggles. What most of them have in common is that they are external in nature. They are threats to a peaceful life.

At the time of Paul’s writing above he refers to a present darkness. The fledgling church had an active opponent trying to kill this threat to his realm, the prince of the power of the air. Christians were an effective threat to his realm. Evil was easily identified because it was exceedingly evil. Over time it forced that enemy to be less obvious. If he could be thought of as defeated, his threats were not as obvious.

With all that is going on in the world during this present darkness we do not see him as the author of evil and we focus on the struggle. He enjoys that position of ignorance for in focusing on the struggle we fail to remember the war. Did the devil invent plagues? No, he has no power over material things. He does however influence the emotional reaction with lies, innuendoes and fears of helplessness.

That is the real danger, loss of hope. Not of wishful thinking but of the power of God to effect this physical world. God can control what He creates. Some have called for unity in prayer. Have you heard their cry? Does it move you to pray?

Better yet, have you heard from God in enacting His will now?