One of my worst habits is running ahead of God. I have been working on breaking it, but self-sufficiency will always be my greatest faith hurdle. I get an idea or find a solution or make a decision and I run with it. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.

The problem is not with how it turns out. The problem is that I am leaning on my own understanding. I’m relying upon myself. I’m only thinking about my own will.

Both in the Lord’s prayer and in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed for God’s will to be done.

Are we praying for the same thing?

In Ephesians 5:15-17, Paul gives a strong caution against my worst habit: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

When Paul talks about our walk, he is referring to how we live. Look carefully at how you live. And live wisely. “Wise” in the Greek means wise in a practical sense. It refers to someone whose actions are governed by piety (reverence for God) and integrity.

When I look at my actions, I can say that I act with integrity and that I am rather practical about things. The problem is that the formula for real wisdom requires a reverence for God in all that I do. That would be the missing ingredient when I run ahead. Even if it works out well. Even if it works out great. It still isn’t wise because I wasn’t acting with Godly reverence. I wasn’t considering him. I wasn’t consulting him. I wasn’t respecting him.

Instead, I was being foolish – senseless, stupid, rash. The exact thing that Paul is telling us to avoid. Be careful! Don’t be foolish! Because being foolish is not the best use of our time. Such a limited resource like time needs to be used wisely. Acting without a thought for God would not be that. No, instead, we need to understand the will of God.

In my research, my favorite discovery was the meaning of the word “understand” in the Greek. It means to bring together your perception with the thing being perceived. If I am trying to perceive the will of God, then I need to bring my perception to his will (the thing being perceived).

That means that I need to adjust my thoughts, my understanding to the truth, to what is real, to the actual thing. Too many times, we try to shape the truth to fit our perception rather than shaping our perception to fit the truth.

If we are trying to perceive the will of God, we have to bring ourselves to it. That requires humility. That requires molding yourself to him.

It also requires that you stop trying to figure everything out on your own – including God’s will. God’s will belongs to him. We can’t figure it out, force it out, or logic it out. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So, we must remember…

His will is for him to reveal, not for us to discover.

We could easily treat God’s will like another piece to the puzzle we are trying to solve. We still try to do it in our own way and time and strength.

That is foolish.

It isn’t wise.

It isn’t understanding.

In order for God to reveal his will, we have to go to him. We have to be still, be quiet. We have to listen. That’s how I am working to break the habit of running ahead.

I build in a pause.

I pause to listen, to check in. If I don’t get an answer, I prolong the pause. I don’t unpause until I feel a sense of peace. Not peace about the situation, but a serenity in my next step. A peace that only comes from knowing the will of God.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul shares a prayer for them from a fellow Colossian, saying: “that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12).

Mature means complete, finished. It is living wisely.

Fully assured means totally convinced. It is understanding (molding your perception to the thing being perceived).

He prayed that we may be complete and completely convinced in God’s will.

That is how we should be. Complete and completely convinced in the will of God, not just your own.

Don’t act, don’t move until you are.

Instead, build in a pause for peace.