In my last blog post, I introduced the concept of God’s will of direction. When faced with a decision such as which job to take or where to live, we want to know what God’s will is. But we need to stop looking at God’s will as a target. We worry if we don’t hit the center, we’re not in God’s will. God is not a magic 8 ball. God’s will is not a maze in which there is only one way out. How scary a thought to be at a fork in the road and to think that if you don’t choose the right path you will forever mess up God’s plan for you. God does not have a secret will of direction that he expects you to figure out before it happens.
So why do so many seek this secret will of God? For one, we all want to please God. So it’s natural for us to want to know what God thinks every time a decision must be made. But a lot of times it is because we are timid or afraid. We don’t want to take a risk and make the wrong choice, so we do nothing and just say we are waiting for God to reveal his will. It is also because we want perfect fulfillment. We want everything we do to be perfectly fulfilling: our job, our marriage, our vacations, where we live, our hobbies. The fact is, we would probably be more fulfilled if we didn’t focus so much on everything being perfect. If you were to ask your grandfather if he was fulfilled in his job, he probably wouldn’t understand what you meant. In those days, they worked to feed their families and that was that. Our generation also has way too many choices. It used to be that you lived where you were born (it was too hard to travel anywhere too far), you did the job that your father did (most likely farming), and you married one of the eligible men or women in town (there were probably around a dozen choices). Now we have such an infinite amount of choices, it actually keeps us from committing. So we float from one thing to the next. We are never satisfied with our job or our boyfriend or our town because what if there is something better out there? I’m guilty of this too.
So what’s wrong with trying to figure out God’s will of direction? For one, it causes us to focus on nonmoral decisions. The Bible doesn’t tell us whether we should live in Montana or Nebraska. It is much more important to God that we are following his will of desire (his commands that are clearly laid out in his word). So as long as you are obeying God, you can obey in Maine or Michigan. As long as you are following Jesus, you can follow as a doctor or a farmer. As long as you are doing what the word says (and you are not unequally yoked), you can marry Tim or Joe. We must remember what is important to God and not overspiritualize every decision.
Another problem is that if God has a secret will of direction that we must figure out, it means he is a sneaky God. There are definitely mysteries that we may never figure out, but God does not hide truth from us. In this conventional way of looking at God’s will, it implies not only that God hides the truth but that he expects us to find it. Isn’t it much better to believe that God tells us everything we need to know? No guessing or visions required.
Another problem with this view of God’s will is that it makes us focus on the future. Anxiety is living out the future before it gets here. God doesn’t want us to be anxious. He holds the future in his hands; he wants us to trust him. We would all be happier if we focused less on the future. Worry is the opposite of faith.
The next problem is that this view takes the blame off of ourselves. It takes away accountability. Have you ever heard of a girl breaking up with a boy because she felt the Spirit telling her to? That poor guy, not only did he get rejected by her, but he also got rejected by the Spirit! If you feel you should break up with someone do it, but don’t blame God.
Finally, this view of God’s will is subjective. I’m going to quote directly from DeYoung: “I’m not saying subjective decisions are wrong. We make decisions based on a ‘feeling’ all the time. But a subjective divining of God’s will should not be your decision-making process. It’s a dead-end street. How do you know when an open door is the Lord’s open door or the Devil tempting you? How do you know when a closed door is the Lord’s answer to your prayer or the Lord testing your steadfastness and resolve? These are the conundrums people get into when all their decisions come from subjective attempts to discern God’s will for their lives.”
The truth is God tells us what his will for our lives is. It’s right there in the Bible. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Colossians 1:9-12, Romans 8:28-29. Simply put God’s will for us is to be more and more Christlike daily.
In my next blog post I will discuss tools people misuse to determine God’s will and also a better way that God guides us (wisdom through his word!).
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