What is God’s will for your life?
Is that an easy question or a difficult one to answer?
I’ve been carrying Kevin DeYoung’s book Just Do Something in my bag for past two weeks promoting it and passing it around because it’s full of good theology, it’s very short and it is extremely relevant. It will only cost you $10 and take 2 hours of your life, and if I were you I’d get online and buy one right now.
Hanging out on campus I hear students constantly talking about trying to “figure out God’s will.” Mostly, they are talking about the big life decisions like who does God want them to marry? Should they get married? They ask questions like “Am I studying the right thing, or does the Lord want me to change my major?” People pray and ask God to show them which internship to take, or where they should spend their summer. I wave the banner for summer missions and hear people say “I’ll pray and see if God wants me to go somewhere this year.” Some add, “I don’t want to go on a summer mission just because I think it’s a good idea, I want it to do what the Lord wants me to do.” It’s not just students who do this of course. Every time a Christian has a big decision they will talk about trying to discern God’s will.
And of course, in many ways this is a good thing! –except that there are so many misconceptions about how God operates and what God’s will is. And when you combine these skewed ways of thinking with all the many decisions we have to make these days, there can be lots of confusion. Paralyzing confusion actually. We can become so caught up in trying to find God’s will for this or that situation that we end up not doing anything! People become stagnant and ruled by fear. The question God cares about most is not “where should I live?” but “Do I love the Lord with all my heart?”
