God's Will

While I completely agree with the idea of the sovereignty of God, I sometimes get concerned with how I hear some present it. Some present it such that everything that happens in this world is God's will - I think much occurs that God is not in favor of. For example, even though it is God's will is that no one should perish (2 Peter 3:9), it does not mean that no one will perish.

However, I think my biggest concern in regards to those in the Calvinist camp is that one fails to see how my interactions influence God's will. For example, if I walk in pride, God's will is that I am opposed by Him. If I walk in humility, God's will is to give me grace. This is clear from both 1 Peter 5:5 and James 4:6. As a result, I know I have seen God respond differently about things I have prayed for in different circumstances based on whether I was walking in pride. If I were to simply have prayed while walking in pride, not seen a breakthrough, and attributed the results that God did not want to do what I prayed for, I would have mistaken God's will to being much more of an external manifestation instead of internal. A clear biblical example of this would be the Israelites going to the promised land. It should be clear that God's will for them was to go to the promised land. However, due to their grumbling and other issues, God's will was that they walk around the Sinai peninsula for many years. If the people simply thought that "God's will is for me to walk around the Sinai" without ever bothering to consider WHY God's will was for them to walk around Sinai, might have caused a radical change in what was occurring in their lives. So while I completely believe in the Sovereignty of God, I am horrified as to how I hear many people present it.

This might be repetitive from an earlier post...