Just Get This Book

I highly recommend Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. It's a short book that packs a big punch. Also as someone who has had a wrong view of the will of God for most of my life, this book clears up a lot of things. I didn't realize how confused I was/am until reading this book. It has been a breath of fresh air cutting through the mystical ideas of the will of God that I used to hold.

Part of my confusion may be due to being taught that the entire history of mankind since the fall is Plan B. Therefore, God doesn't appear to have very good control over His creation since He has been trying to salvage things since the Garden. In fact, the will of God becomes a very tenuous thing because there is absolutely no security that His will will happen since man and the devil seem to be awfully good at derailing it. Also, if human history is Plan B, what plan am I in? Given all the wrong choices that I could have made, I could be in the third, fourth, or fifth derivative of Plan Z.

If you take the above view in combination with natural fearmongering and handwringing, then it's a very scary thing to be out of the will of God. Being in a subplan implies that God is not involved or not as involved since you have taken things into your own hands. Therefore, as much as God would want to be help you out, He can't because you're not in His will. So, you had better make the right choice, or else. This is the thing Christian nightmares are made of. Believe me, there is no peace living under the threat of not being in His will.

The flip side of this is the magic pixie dust view of the will of God. If you manage to hit the bull's eye of the will of God or find the one path among umpteen thousands, then you have the found the key to God's blessings. God showers heavenly magic pixie dust on your circumstances that will make all things go well for you and yours.

Not to be irreverant, but it's almost like a good cop/bad cop portrayal of the will of God . If you find it, you'll be set for life or at least for the duration that you are in the will of God. If you don't, woe to you. Also, there is no way to know if you've even found it, and you can move in and out of the will of God without realizing it.

You don't know how I repent of the times I said, in regard to marriage, "If God does it, it will be wonderful." So what happens if things aren't wonderful? It wasn't God's will, then? Then whose will was it? This view is so misleading because God's will is reduced to being equivalent to my earthly happiness. God, therefore, is made out to be all about me - not about God Himself and His own glory.

Kevin DeYoung says it well:

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. But a lot of prayers boil down to, "God, don't let anything unpleasant happen to anyone. Make everything in the world nice for everyone." And when we aren't praying this kind of prayer, we are praying for God to tell us that everything will turn out 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. We want God to tell us what to do so everything will turn out pleasant for us.

Are you feeling directionally challenged by this? Don't despair. God promises to be your sun and your shield and to carry you and protect with His strong right arm. 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.