If you believe in a personal God who cares about every aspect of your life, why is it sometimes so hard to figure out His will? Well, maybe it’s not as hard as we make it. Maybe it really isn’t the scavenger hunt it feels like.
Let’s start with that phrase itself. When you think about knowing God’s will, what kinds of things immediately come to mind? Your career? Your relationships? Where you should live? It’s important to know God’s will about these things. But first let’s think about other aspects of God’s will.
Do we know God’s will for how we should treat others? When the light turns green and the car in front of you doesn’t move because its driver is texting, we know how we should respond. Scripture tells us to be patient, to be loving (even when the first thing the suddenly alerted driver does is look at you in the rearview mirror).
Do we know God’s will for the way we should conduct ourselves on Monday morning? Scripture tells us: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart” (Col. 3:23). The fact that this counsel was first given to slaves should make us sit up and ask: Am I working at my current job with all my heart, even if I don’t like my job?
So we know how we’re supposed to treat others. We know we’re supposed to live and work with integrity. We know we’re supposed to honor the Lord in all we do. We know 99 percent of God’s will for us.
Often what we really mean when we talk about knowing God’s will is knowing God’s will for our future—our career, our relationships, exciting things like that. Does God care about these too? If so, how do we figure out His will in these areas?
Consider the passages that tend to be popular when we’re seeking God’s will for our lives. These are the greatest hits, the bestsellers. Let’s see if we can find a common thread.
Greatest Hit No. 1: “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. . . . The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him” (Ps. 37:4-23).
Message: Focus on your relationship with the Lord and release to Him your plans. You don’t have to figure out God’s will for you. If He delights in the way you’re heading, your steps will be firm. If your steps aren’t firm, you should stop or turn around.
Greatest Hit No. 2: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Prov. 3:5, 6).
Message: Focus on your relationship with the Lord, and release to Him all your plans. The word “submit” in the original Hebrew means to know someone intimately. The same word is used in Genesis 4:1: “Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant.” Enough said.
Greatest Hit No. 3: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’” (Jer. 29:11-13).
Message: Focus on your relationship with the Lord, and release to Him all your plans. Accept the reality that His plans may not match your plans. Read the early portion of Jeremiah 29, and you’ll see God telling His people to stop striving for Jerusalem but instead to settle down and plant gardens in Babylon. In other words, bloom where you’re planted.
Greatest Hit No. 4: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life. . . . But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt. 6:25-34).
Message: Focus on your relationship with the Lord and release to Him all your plans. The Lord Himself came near to deliver this counsel. And by His Spirit He now comes even nearer.
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Andy Nash is the author of Paper God, a spiritual memoir about releasing our plans to the Lord. This article was published December 15, 2011.
