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

by Kevin DeYoung

As Bible commentator Bruce Waltke has pointed out, Abel had faith and he died; Enoch had faith and he did not die; Noah had faith and everyone else died!2 So just having faith doesn’t guarantee your life—or the lives of those around you—

The church needs lifers and those who can be counted on for the long haul. My fear is that of all the choices people face today, the one they rarely consider is, “How can I serve most effectively and fruitfully in the local church?”

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 ...

Many of us—men and women—are extremely passive and cowardly. 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.

That’s often what we are asking for when we pray to know the will of God. We aren’t asking for holiness, or righteousness, or an awareness of sin.

God doesn’t take risks, so we can.

God has a wonderful plan for your life—a plan that will take you through trial and triumph as you are transformed into the image of His Son (Romans 8:28–29).

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.

We want to know what tomorrow will bring instead of being content with simple obedience on the journey.

anxiety, after all, is simply living out the future before it gets here.

We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence, not because the future is known

to us but because it is known to God.

phrases. But if we say “God told me to do this” or “God’s leading me here,” this puts our decisions out of reach from criticisms or concerns. We should choose some different terminology. “I prayed about it, and this seems best” or “It seems like the Lord is leading” would be a more helpful way of communicating our dependence on God.

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

But specific step-by-step instruction is not usually how God operates. His way is to show His holiness, declare us holy in Christ, then exhort us to grow

in holiness in daily life. That’s God’s will of desire for you. And that’s His will of direction too.

Die to self. Live for Christ. And then do what you want, and go where you want, for God’s glory.