Just Do Something

The “Will of God” is something many people think about a lot. What is God’s will for my life? Is it God’s will that I take this job, move to this city, marry this person? When something bad happens, we often find ourselves asking, “How can this be God’s will? I thought God was supposed to have a wonderful plan for my life.” Again, we spend a lot of time thinking about God’s will. This is why Kevin DeYoung’s book, Just Do Something, A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will, is so helpful. But this is a different kind of book than what you may be expecting. DeYoung doesn’t just help you “find God’s will for your life.” In fact, he will argue that that’s a bad idea, which leads to all kinds of confusion, frustration and unnecessary head-spinning. He writes, “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” (16).

DeYoung helpfully unpacks the term “the will of God” by examining three ways to look at it, which he calls God’s will of decree, will of desire, and will of direction. The first two — will of decree and desire — are biblical; the third — will of direction — is not; at least, it is very commonly misunderstood and misapplied. So, what are these three wills of God?

God’s will of decree.

God is Sovereign, which means that He decides all that comes to pass — even down to the details. There is nothing that can happen against God’s will. “God works out everything — the big picture, the little details, and everything in between — according to His own good and sovereign purpose” (17). For Christians, it is God’s will of decree we read of in Romans 8:28 — “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” God’s will of decree is not something we are to find out — we can’t find it out — but we are to trust it. So, does God have “a wonderful plan for our lives?” If we are a Christian, then yes, He does — it’s just not something we need to worry about. “Worry is a spiritual issues that must be fought with faith” (55). Faith in the God who has everything under control.

God’s will of desire.

God is Holy, which means He is altogether perfect, in a category all his own. God also desires that His people live holy, set-apart lives — removed from the sin and corruption of the world which is passing away (1 John 2:17), and “transformed by the renewing of your minds” (Romans 12:2). In other words, God’s will for our lives — His will of desire — is our sanctification. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). How good, then, that this is something we don’t need to guess at; rather, it is clearly laid out in the Scriptures. If you can read (or listen) you can know what God’s will is for your life. When we obey (by the Spirit’s empowering), we are doing the will of God. DeYoung lays out several explicit places where we see God’s will of desire:

1.) Rejoice, pray, and give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

2.) To bear spiritual fruit and know God better (Colossians 1:9).

3.) To be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:17-18).

“The question God cares about most is not “Where should I live?” but “Do I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind, and do I love my neighbor as myself?” (Luke 10:27), 55-56). Put succinctly, “Die to self. Live for Christ. And then do what you want, and go where you want, for God’s glory” (59).

God’s will of direction.

God is not a “sneaky God”…who knows what we should do, hides this from us, expects us to figure it out, then holds us accountable if we don’t (44). And yet this is so often the result of this very common misunderstanding of God’s will — what DeYoung calls God’s will of direction. He defines this as “a secret will of direction that [God] expects us to figure out before we do anything” (22). DeYoung admits that many people pursue God’s will of direction in order to please God — “they want to do what God wants” — but pastorally warns that not only does this approach lead to “confusion, disappointment, and head spinning” (51), but that, quite simply, there is a better way to follow God’s will, namely, the “way of wisdom”). Before we get to the “way of wisdom,” DeYoung offers five problems with the conventional approach to the will of God:

1.) It focuses almost all our attention on nonmoral decisions. This is just mathematics: there’s little attention then paid to moral decisions.

2.) As mentioned already, it implies that we have a sneaky God.

3.) It encourages preoccupation with the future (c.f. James 4:13-15).

4.) It undermines personal responsibility, accountability, and initiative.

5.) It enslaves us in the chains of hopeless subjectivism. How can we ever be sure it was God who said it, and not just our own thoughts?