Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will

by Kevin DeYoung

We’re not consistent. We’re not stable. We don’t stick with anything. We aren’t sure we are making the right decisions. Most of the time, we can’t even make decisions. And we don’t follow through. All of this means that as Christian young people we are less fruitful and less faithful than we ought to be.

Consider this one statistic: In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men completed all the major transitions into adulthood by age thirty. These transitions include leaving home, finishing school, becoming financially independent, getting married, and having a child.

My goal is not as much to tell you how to hear God’s voice in making decisions as it is to help you hear God telling you to get off the long road to nowhere and finally make a decision, get a job, and, perhaps, get married.

My answer is not original to me, but it is quite simple and, I hope, quite biblical. I’d like us to consider that maybe we have difficulty discovering God’s wonderful plan for our lives because, if the truth be told, He doesn’t really intend to tell us what it is. And maybe we’re wrong to expect Him to.

God’s will of decree. This refers to what God has ordained. Everything that comes to pass is according to God’s sovereign decree. And all that He decrees will ultimately come to pass.

I am simply noting that God is sovereign, but He is not the author of sin. We are under His sovereignty, but we are not free from responsibility for our actions.

Trusting in God’s will of decree is good. Following His will of desire is obedient. Waiting for God’s will of direction is a mess. It is bad for your life, harmful to your sanctification, and allows too many Christians to be passive tinkerers who strangely feel more spiritual the less they actually do.

God is not a Magic 8-Ball we shake up and peer into whenever we have a decision to make. He is a good God who gives us brains, shows us the way of obedience, and invites us to take risks for Him.

The better way is the biblical way: Seek first the kingdom of God, and then trust that He will take care of our needs, even before we know what they are and where we’re going.

Some Christians have the best intentions in seeking out God’s will. They are just too cautious and a little fainthearted. Such Christians need admonition, but they also deserve our patience and help.

And when every experience and situation must be rewarding and put us on the road to complete fulfillment, then suddenly the decisions about where we live, what house we buy, what dorm we’re in, and whether we go with tile or laminate take on weighty significance. There is just too much riding on every decision. I’m pretty sure most of us would be more fulfilled if we didn’t fixate on fulfillment quite so much.

My hunch is that most of our obsession with knowing the will of God is due to the fact that we are overburdened with choice. We think choice makes us happy, but there comes a point (and most of us are well past it) where we would actually be better off with fewer choices.

But if no one settled down and no one stayed put for awhile, let alone a lifetime, we could not minister to all the students in the way we do. The church needs lifers and those who can be counted on for the long haul.

With so many choices, it’s no surprise that we are always thinking about the greener grass on the other side of the fence. We are always pondering what could be better or what might be nicer about something or someone new.

“Decide” comes from the Latin word decidere, meaning “to cut off,” which explains why decisions are so hard these days. We can’t stand the thought of cutting off any of our options. If we choose A, we feel the sting of not having B and C and D. As a result, every choice feels worse than no choice at all. And when we do make an important choice, we end up with buyers’ remorse, wondering if we are settling for second best. Or, worse yet, we end up living in our parents’ basement indefinitely as we try to find ourselves and hear God’s voice.

I’m not advocating that everyone move back to his hometown and take whatever job is available (though that would be at least a step toward something for some people). Some of you should go overseas and others will move to new places. But I am advocating floundering less, making a difference for God sooner, and—above all—not spiritualizing, year after year, our inability to make decisions in the elusive quest to discover God’s will.

I’m arguing that our eagerness to know God’s will is probably less indicative of a heart desperately wanting to obey God and more about our heads spinning with all the choices to be made.

Sometimes when we pray to know the will of God, we are praying a coward’s prayer: “Lord, tell me what to do so nothing bad will happen to me and I won’t have to face danger or the unknown.” We want to know everything is going to be fine for us or for those we love. But that’s not how God spoke to Esther. As a Jewish woman who won an unusual beauty contest to become Xerxes’ queen (see Esther 2:2–17), Esther would learn that God’s plans can include risk—and an opportunity to show courage.

We don’t take risks for God because we are obsessed with safety, security, and most of all, with the future. That’s why most of our prayers fall into one of two categories. Either we ask that everything would be fine or we ask to know that everything will be fine. We pray for health, travel, jobs—and we should pray for these things.

Obsessing over the future is not how God wants us to live, because showing us the future is not God’s way. His way is to speak to us in the Scriptures and transform us by the renewing of our minds. His way is not a crystal ball. His way is wisdom. We should stop looking for God to reveal the future to us and remove all risk from our lives. We should start looking to God—His character and His promises—and thereby have confidence to take risks for His name’s sake.

For all of us it means putting aside our insatiable desire to have every aspect of our lives, or even the most important aspects of our lives, nailed down before our eyes before we get there.

So we can stop pleading with God to show us the future, and start living and obeying like we are confident that He holds the future.

He will provide us with the food, drink, jobs, housing, with everything that we need to live and glorify Him in this life until He wants us to glorify Him by dying. Worrying and fretting and obsessing about the future, even if it is a pseudo-holy worry that attempts to discern the will of God, will not add one single hour to your life, and it will certainly not add any happiness or holiness either.

Worry and anxiety are not merely bad habits or idiosyncrasies. They are sinful fruits that blossom from the root of unbelief.

Jesus doesn’t treat obsession with the future as a personal quirk, but as evidence of little faith (v. 30). Worry and anxiety reflect our hearts’ distrust in the goodness and sovereignty of God. Worry is a spiritual issue and must be fought with faith.1 We must fight to believe that God has mercy for today’s troubles and, no matter what may co...

God’s way is not to show us what tomorrow looks like or even to tell us what decisions we should make tomorrow. That’s not His way because that’s not the way of faith. God’s way is to tell us that He knows tomor...

First, God’s will is that we live holy, set-apart lives: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

Count on it: God’s will is always your sanctification. He has set you and me apart that we would grow to be more like Christ.

The will of God for our lives is that we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. The most important decision we face is the daily decision to live for Christ and die to self.

So the argument in Hebrews 1–4 goes like this: (1) God can speak in many ways. (2) In these last days, God has spoken by his Son. (3) God speaks to us by His Son through the Holy Spirit speaking by the living and active Word of God.

We have no record in the New Testament of anyone anxious to hear God tell him what to do. Paul never sought out special words of knowledge concerning his future. He seems very concerned to know and obey God’s moral will. But when he gets to a fork in the road, hesitating and pleading with God to know which way to go seems completely foreign to the apostle.

Don’t think the convenient way is always God’s way of making a more comfortable way for you.

The Word of God is not to be used as a lottery; nor is it designed to instruct us by shreds and scraps, which, detached from their proper places, have no determinative import; but it is to furnish us with just principles, right apprehensions to regulate our judgments and affections, and thereby to influence and direct our conduct.”

We have more information than ever before, and yet our wisdom has not kept pace with our knowledge. In fact, you could make a good case that where information has increased, wisdom has decreased.

These were the headlines on CNN.com on a Tuesday afternoon back in 2007: “Bush to call for sharp cutback in gas consumption.” “Military: 4 held in sneak attack on U.S. in Iraq.” “Libby: White House wanted to sacrifice me for Rove.” “Smoking gun report to say global warming is here.” “Shark chomps head of man diving for weeds.” “Oscar nominations announced.” “Sex offender, 29, enrolled himself in seventh grade.” “Sea lion misses water, ends up on dairy farm.” “101 dumbest moments in business.” “Tulsa digging up car buried 50 years.” These are the top stories, mind you. Do you remember any of these two years later? Or even two days later? How much of it actually matters? And if something really did matter in this list, how could you recognize it when it is surrounded by breaking news about the daily travails of sea lions? We have plenty of information. Not enough wisdom.

Wisdom is what we need to live a godly life. God does not tell us the future, nor does He expect us to figure it out. When we don’t know which way to turn and are faced with tough decisions in life, God doesn’t expect us to grope in the dark for some hidden will of direction. He expects us to trust Him and to be wise.

In other words, God says, “Don’t ask to see all the plans I’ve made for you. Ask Me for wisdom so you’ll know how to live according to My Book.”

Wisdom is precious because it keeps us from foolishness.

Verses 12–22 show you that wisdom keeps you from wicked men (12), dark ways (13), crooked paths (15), and the adulterous woman with her seductive speech (16). Wisdom is the path of righteousness (20), while foolishness is the path of death (18–19).

So how do we get this valuable wisdom? Our text mentions three ways. The first way to get wisdom is to store up God’s commands (1). The second way is turn your ear to wisdom (2). And the third way is to call out for insight (3).

is interested in more than getting us to follow His to-do list; He wants transformation. God doesn’t want us to merely give external obedience to His commands. He wants us to know Him so intimately that His thoughts become our thoughts, His ways our ways, His affections our affections. God wants us to drink so deeply of the Scriptures that our heads and hearts are transformed so that we love what He loves and hate what He hates.

There are three commands here: (1) Present your bodies as living sacrifices. (2) Do not conform to the world. (3) Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. If we do these three things, then we will be able to discern what God’s will is. This is how the Christian life works.

That’s how we are to be with the Word of God. We must eat it and swallow it and digest it so regularly that over time we develop a taste for godliness. That’s wisdom.

after you’ve prayed and studied and sought advice, make a decision and don’t hyper-spiritualize it. Do what seems best. Sometimes you won’t have time to pray and read and seek counsel for a month. That’s why the way of wisdom is about more than getting a decisive word about one or two big decisions in life.