Young Adults' Group

The Will Of God And The Will Of Parents

by Pastor Mark
April 01, 2021

When the will of God differs from the will of our parents

It has been a joy to understand more deeply about God’s will in the lives and ministries of both the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul. They were totally focused on fulfilling His will.

As we consider the will of God in our lives, there may be times when we find ourselves at odds with the will of our parents. We thank God for blessing us with our parents. They have loved and cared for us in more ways than one. And we should always seek to honour and to love them.

But there will be times when God’s will for us may differ from our parents’ desires. This was something that I had to face at different points in my life. I had to make the hard decision of whether to follow the Lord’s will or to submit to my parents’ will. Whether our parents are Christians or not, if their thinking is not according to the Lord’s Word, we may end up not following God’s will. As I look back in my life, there were significant decisions that I had to make to ensure that I was following the will of the Lord.

1. Overcoming the fear of doing the will of God

It was always my father’s desire for my brothers and me to play water polo. But there came a time when I decided to focus on growing my faith. As my water polo training often clashed with our church meetings, I realised that it was God’s will for me to stop water polo training. My desire was to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt 6:33). I was fearful as to how my dad would respond to my decision. Nevertheless, I wanted to overcome my fears and to follow the Lord’s will. I thank God that my dad accepted my decision. From then on, I became much more serious about my faith and my walk with the Lord.

2. Seeing the will of God as something “bigger”

When I was discovering the Lord’s calling for me to become a servant of the Lord, one significant consideration was how my parents would feel about it. My parents’ desire was for me to continue working as a banker. I knew that they would be upset with my decision to become a pastor. But I had determined that it was the Lord’s will for me to enter into the full-time ministry. I had to go beyond the will of my parents.

The will of God is so much “bigger” than our own will or the will of our parents. It is divine and from above. In the first Morning Worship message of March, Pastor Charles spoke of Paul’s calling to be an apostle according to the will of God (Eph 1:1, Col 1:1). It reminded me so much of my own calling to be a pastor according to the will of God. It took a while, but my parents finally accepted my decision to serve the Lord. I thank God for His will in calling me into the full-time ministry.

3. Following the will of God rather than the will of our parents

There will be times when doing the work of the Lord will differ from the wishes of our parents. In serving the Lord, I could not spend as much time with them as they would have wanted me to. Once, during our Youth Conference, a close friend of the family passed away. My parents wanted Pastor Mitch and me to be there for the Chinese funeral. We had to say “No” to them. I recalled what Jesus taught that we should follow Him and let the dead bury the dead (Luke 9:60). There were times when the Lord focused on ministering to His spiritual family rather than to His physical family (Matt 12:46–49).

Let us not continue to live in the shadow of our parents’ will. The Lord Jesus set for us the most excellent example of following His Father’s will…especially in giving His life as a sacrifice for all of us. Let us be challenged to follow the will of our Father.

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