Finding God's Will

Kevin DeYoung's new book Just Do Something:  A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will is an impressive book in how it profoundly boils down a significant and tricky subject into a short, pithy handbook.  Regular STR readers will note that DeYoung's take on the topic coincides with ours and Greg's teaching "Decision Making & the Will of God."  This is an excellent book to give someone to open up a discussion on the topic, without overwhelming them with too much information at first.  It's also helpful if you already agree with DeYoung's take because his observations and practical advice are very wise.

Here is a sampling of DeYoung's points from the "call-outs" in the book.  They're clever and helpful "proverbs."

Let's not spiritualize our inability to make decisions in the quest to discover God's will.

His way is not a crystal ball.  His way is wisdom.

We can stop pleading with God to show us the future (being) confident that He holds the future.

Anxiety is simply living out the future before it gets here.

God never assures us of health, success, or ease.  But He promises us something even better, to make us...humble like Christ.

Our attitude toward wisdom should be one of earnest longing.

The way of wisdom is a way of life.  And that makes you freer than you realize.

And this is an interesting observation:

Of the five reasons for our obssession with finding God's will, this may be the most crucial:  We have too many choices.  I'm convinced that previous generations did not struggle like we do trying to discover God's will because they didn't have as many choices.  In many ways, our preoccupation with the will of God is a Western, middle-class phenomenon of the last fifty years....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.

Comments

[Alvin]

Love it already.

[Sage S.]

Someone at work today brought up the question of "Which church should I attend?" as an example of how far we've come from the unified body described in Ephesians. Seemingly every new generation of Christians feels compelled to invent a new denomination that crystallizes their personal view of THE Church. So they subdivide and branch off into a fresh new way of meeting and praising and applying the word.

More denominational varieties, with more and increasingly subtler differences in format and methodology seems not to be in the spirit of Jesus' prayer in John 17 that, "They may be one, as we are one." (Also, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me," v 23.)

In answer to the question, "What is God's will for me regarding which church I attend?" the answer cannot be, "He wills me to create a more authentic format."