I previously looked at two common, faulty, Christian cliches. The first being "God has a wonderful plan for your life" and the second that "God will not put more on you than you can bear." I suggested both have an element of truth to them while ultimately being biblically unsatisfying. I'd like to take on a third cliche in this post which I think is also flawed. Like the others, it also contains the potential to be spiritually and psychologically damaging. This cliche is that you need to "find God's will for your life." Now, what could possibly be wrong with that?! I know, I know. But just hear me out. Here again the context for this charge is usually focused on our individual life journey. Who should I marry? What major should I declare? What job should I take? Where should I move? I want to state up front, these are all valid questions and all valid concerns to bring to God. We should pray about them and seek the advice of others. But is this the same thing as "finding God's will?" I don't think we should equate the two for several reasons.
First, an assumption often undergirds this idea that God has a singular will for my life. If I take the wrong job, marry the wrong person, declare the wrong major, I will be "out of God's will" and subsequently will waste or ruin my life. I think this is mistaken for several reason. First, this is sometimes linked with the notion of simple causal determinism I challenged in the previous post. The irony is that these two ideas are at odds with one another. If God is causally in control of everything, then X decision doesn't matter, because I couldn't take another job or marry someone else, etc., even if I wanted to do so. Second, while we should seek direction through prayer and wise counsel when making important decisions, we too often seek him only or at least most urgently when making those decisions. The fact is we find very little angst in the Bible over these types of issues. Was David stressed about whether being a shepherd was "God's will for his life?" Or was Esther concerned about whether the king was "the right one for her?" Not to belittle the importance of those decisions, but the biblical authors are far more concerned to point people towards participating in God's unfolding redemptive story than to feel anxious about who to date. Second, and I think more importantly, when we find descriptions of "God's will" in the Bible, here is what we see. God's will is: - missionally oriented (cf. Rom. 1:10; 8:27; 15:32; 2 Cor 1:1; 8:5; Eph 1:1; Col 1:1; 2 Tim 1:1; all of Paul's apostolic calling) - "that which is good, acceptable, and perfect" (Rom 12:2; i.e., a qualitative notion) - that which brings repentance (2 Cor 7:9-10) - exemplified by service from the heart (Eph 6:6; Col 4:12) - abstaining from sexual immorality (1 Thess 4:3) - giving thanks (1 Thess 5:18); linked with faithful perseverance (Heb 10:36) - submitting to governing authorities (1 Pet 2:15) - living by the Spirit rather than the flesh (1 Pet 4:2, 6) - suffering (1 Pet 4:19) - in contrast with loving the worldly system (1 John 2:17) In other words, what we find concerning God's will in the Bible is typically concerned with 1) God's plan for restoring the world, 2) the ethical behavior of Christians, or 3) the missional task of bringing this work of restoration to others. If we are looking for God's will, this is where we should start, with embracing the transformative work of God in our own life and being an agent of bringing that transformative work to others. We do not find the notion of God's will linked up with our personal life choices. Do these matter to God? Of course. Should we pray about them? Of course. Should we confuse them with "God's will"? I would suggest otherwise. So, should we stop "seeking God's will" for our life? As Paul would say, may it never be! But we should put proper emphasis upon what this means by looking to Scripture first. And there we find that God's will involves His plan for His world, the transformation of His people, and His commission for them to be agents of transformation. If we focus our attention there, we will probably sweat the other details much less. And who knows... if we embrace God's transformative work in our lives and our roles to bring that to others, making those important decisions might even be all the easier.
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