Freedom in God’s Will

My dearest sister,

Do you ever fret about which school to go to, which job to take or what house to buy? Do you worry that if you choose one path over another that you’ll miss out on what God had planned for you if you had chosen differently? Are you waiting for signs to appear and peace to befall you before you make a decision? I have been there, dear sister, and I know that it is a difficult place to be. For the Christian, decision making can often be confining and make you feel like you’re walking on a tight rope because we are doing our best to follow God’s will for our lives. We don’t know what God’s will is for our lives when it comes to what school to go to, what career to choose, what man to marry or what house to buy or how many kids to have. This is why we (or at least I) often feel constrained when faced with a choice and always fearful of making the wrong decision. 

I struggled for days and possibly weeks to decide whether I would go to Stetson University or Florida State. I prayed. I weighed the pros and cons of each. And then I prayed some more. One day I would lead toward Stetson, the next I would want to go to FSU. I continued praying, wondering if God was ever going to “tell” me what school to go to. Still, after more praying and weighing of both options, I didn’t feel “God leading” me one way or the other. One day my dad told me that I had until the end of the day to make a decision. Yikes! The prospect of making such a decision in a matter of hours was not welcomed but by the end of the day I had decided to go to FSU. The decision had been made and there was no more going back. 

Recently, I read a book on discerning God’s will and it has completely liberated me from this sort of experience in decision making. It is called Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. Though it is geared toward younger people the principles he lays out in his book can be used by everyone and applied in every stage of life. In short the book explains that we are not meant to know what God’s hidden will for our lives is. All we can know for certain regarding His will is what He has laid out in Scripture. God does not expect us to know where He is taking us before we get there. He doesn’t expect us to know that we need to go to this school or buy this house in order to accomplish His will for our lives. More than that, He doesn’t plan to tell us in advance, before we make life-changing decisions. 

So what can we do if God isn’t going to be putting up big red blinking arrows in the sky for us to happily follow along our way? We must search the Scriptures. There we will find the principles needed to make every decision we will ever be faced with. We must use these principles, check our motives, and finally ask God to grant us wisdom. And then we make the decision. We don’t wait for signs. We could end up waiting a long time and never do anything! What’s more, if we are looking for a sign are we really trusting God? If God “tells” us, “Yes, you must go to school here or buy that house” are we taking risks for Christ? Does not God desire us to put our trust in Him unreservedly?

So dear one, dig out the principles of decision making found in God’s word that He has given to us. Pray for wisdom and just do something! God’s will is not a tight rope as we often imagine it to be. But know that there is freedom in Christ! Freedom to obey His word, freedom to trust Him and freedom to make decisions without lying fleece on the ground. So stop living in fear that you are “missing out” on God’s will for your life if you make a decision without signs or visions or that supernatural peace that we often talk about. The only way to miss out on God’s will for your life is to not do anything at all! 

Your liberated sister,

Kayla

KBM