Living for Christ is kinda a cliche in the church, but truly doing it is what sets apart real Christians from, well a good chunk of American's who are "Christian". Living for Christ means doing God's will, and God's will is another thing that, in my opinion, trips up Christians and is used as an excuse to those who are in fact not Christians. Let me explain. Someone who is a "Christian" might say: "I feel like God is telling me to break up with you" or "God doesn't want me to go to church, he wants me to worship him in my own way" or "it's God's will that I am rich and healthy". While these are kind of ridiculous, I'm pretty sure someone somewhere has said these things. God's will is often turned into an excuse by Christians and non-Christians alike, as evidence that some decision we want to make is good. Its funny that usually those decisions help us or improve our circumstances isn't it? I also think that sometimes we worry to much about what God's will for our life is, when in fact the answer is fairly simple. The reason I bring up God's will is because the first couple verses of chapter 12 are focused on it. Essentially Paul writes that following God's will is following Jesus. So what does this mean?
First, Paul's exact words are: "you will be able to test and approve what God's will is". I think it is important to note that sometimes God's will will manifest itself in decisions, a job etc, and a strong relationship with God will help you discern where God wants you or what decision God wants you to make. It is not always going to be something you want to do or like, but sometimes it will be! We need to pray about things and test them by getting advice from friends and mentors.
Second, God's will, in general is really quite simple. Follow Jesus. That means follow his commands, live each day praising God in all you do and boom, you are following God's will. Verses 3-8 are about spiritual gifts. I am convinced that using your spiritual gift is following God's will. He gave you the gift so you could use it to encourage others. Make sure you know your giftings and use them for God's glory, be active in your local church, that is what a local church is all about.
To conclude, if you are following Jesus in your daily life, then you are following God's will for your life. We need to worry less about our futures and about where God wants us or what he wants us to do and make sure we are following him in the day-to-day. We also need to make sure we are not selfishly making up God's will for our lives and discern wisely what God wants from us.
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