{"id":16703,"date":"2008-10-30T20:14:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T01:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=16703"},"modified":"2019-12-10T20:16:53","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T02:16:53","slug":"how-do-i-know-if-im-doing-what-god-wants-me-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-know-if-im-doing-what-god-wants-me-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"How do I know if I&#8217;m doing what God wants me to do?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>How do I know if what I am doing is what God wants me to do? I don&#8217;t know if I should do what I want to do or what others want me to do. Above all, I don&#8217;t know if what I am doing is right or wrong. How do I find out?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, &#8220;I know Him,&#8221; and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked<\/em>&#8221; (I John 2:3-6).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The answer to your question is neither what you want or what others want you to do. The one way to know what you ought to do is to see what God has told you to do. You are doing right when you are obeying God&#8217;s commandments and doing wrong when you are breaking them.<\/p>\n<p>That means you can&#8217;t take the lazy way out and let other people tell you what to do. You have to pick up your Bible and read God&#8217;s instruction manual for yourself. &#8220;<em>Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth<\/em>&#8221; (II Timothy 2:15). There are going to be parts that are hard to understand and parts that will be easy. When you find a difficult section, you ask more experienced people to help you understand it.<\/p>\n<p>God has not left knowing what to do to guesswork. &#8220;<em>All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work<\/em>&#8221; (II Timothy 3:16-17).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: How do I know if what I am doing is what God wants me to do? I don&#8217;t know if I should do what I want to do or what others want me to do. Above all, I don&#8217;t know if what I am doing is right or wrong. How do I find out?&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1506,1093,54],"class_list":["post-16703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-hearing","tag-knowledge","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40970,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-was-baptized-but-i-seem-more-lost-than-i-was-before\/","url_meta":{"origin":16703,"position":0},"title":"I was baptized, but I seem more lost than I was before","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello I read a post that a young boy was sad about sinning and kept returning to the sin that he hates doing. I was baptized as an adult several years ago, but after that, it seems that I'm lost even more than before being baptized. I would like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34381,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-know-that-im-serving-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":16703,"position":1},"title":"How can I know that I&#8217;m serving God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: OK, simple question: I want to know what I can do to just serve God and know it's Him I'm serving. Answer: \"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47700,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-think-my-walk-with-god-is-going-well\/","url_meta":{"origin":16703,"position":2},"title":"I don&#8217;t think my walk with God is going well","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm worried about my walk with God, and I don't think it's going well. I hardly read my Bible and I always forget to pray. When I do pray I'm worried God is not listening. I know He is, but I can't shake this feeling. My question is:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43285,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-know-if-my-feelings-were-genuine-when-i-received-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":16703,"position":3},"title":"I don&#8217;t know if my feelings were genuine when I received Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You may not know me, but I have seen what you wrote and you seem wise. I ask that you give me a genuine answer. Here goes pouring out my heart's doubts: I am not sure that I have received Christ. I don't know if my feeling was genuine\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17641,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-add-things-to-their-worship-so-long-as-they-dont-require-it-of-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":16703,"position":4},"title":"Can a person add things to their worship so long as they don&#8217;t require it of others?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm curious about things and friends of mine who go to other churches. I want to understand why they do the things they do. Regarding Christians doing what they personally want to do is what I'm trying to understand. I understand if they use musical instruments, dance, etc. in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-someone-know-if-they-have-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":16703,"position":5},"title":"How does someone know if they have the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I always wondered this, but how does someone know if they have the Holy Spirit or they don't? Answer: \"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, \"I know Him,\" and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}