God's will and calling

⁵ And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you.

⁶ For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

⁷ God sent me before you to preserve you as a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

⁸ Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God, who has made me a father to Pharaoh—lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

²⁵ Then the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and let me see both it and His dwelling place again.

²⁶ But if He should say, ‘I do not delight in you,’ then here I am; let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him.”

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

¹⁰ I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’

¹¹ I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it.

Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”

If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.

“Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”

“Abba, Father,” He said, “all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”

The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me. O LORD, Your loving devotion endures forever— do not abandon the works of Your hands.

Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

¹⁴ And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God.

³ For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;

⁴ each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

¹⁰ so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience, and joyfully

All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

When he would not be dissuaded, we fell silent and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

⁴² A second time He went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”

⁴³ And again Jesus returned and found them sleeping—for their eyes were heavy.

⁴⁴ So He left them and went away once more and prayed a third time, saying the same thing.

Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the LORD; we have no choice in the matter.

“Put your sword back in its sheath!” Jesus said to Peter. “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour would pass from Him.

But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.

But the LORD took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” And I said: “Here am I. Send me!”

So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word He had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

And they prayed, “Lord, You know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two You have chosen

He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.

“Go!” said the Lord. “This man is My chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings, and before the people of Israel.

Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear His voice.

²³ For just last night an angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood beside me

²⁴ and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And look, God has granted you the lives of all who sail with you.’

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.

At this, Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what He is about to do.

It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.

“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”

Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.