You Can't Screw Up God's Will

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]


Every time I hear a sermon or read an article or book about finding God’s will, I hope that this will be the one that makes it clear for me once and for all. Yet even as we after hearing about the importance of knowing God’s word, of surrounding ourselves with people who will give us godly advice, and learning how to seek God’s perspective on things, the decisions we face in our everyday lives can still seem cloudy. Which job should I take, or should I go back to school? Is this the right school for my child or would they do better at that one? Should I stay in Grand Rapids or move somewhere else? If we apply all the good tactics Pastor Dirk has been talking about for the past few weeks, we can still be looking at these decisions with concern that we’ll make the wrong choice.

When I’m looking through the Bible for advice on God’s will, the book of Nehemiah is not typically where I’d land. But I think it works. God clearly gave Nehemiah a task: Rebuild the wall. So Nehemiah became singularly focused on that task. Everything he did he compared back to his ultimate goal: Will this help me rebuild the wall, or won’t it? Once Nehemiah had his eyes set on his goal, the other decisions became easier.

We likely don’t have any giant walls to rebuild, but on a large level, if we call ourselves followers of Jesus and are seeking to live and love more like him, our ultimate remains the same as we go through out our lives. We are to love and serve the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

While I’m absolutely on board with loving and serving God as my ultimate mission in life, there’s still something in me that balks at the idea of that being the magic bullet answer to all my life problems. I can love God well in the house where I currently live, and I can love him well if I live somewhere else—but that still doesn’t tell me where I’m supposed to live. If God has a plan for my life, why won’t he just clue me in on what that is, down to the little details that keep me up at night?

Maybe we sometimes unnecessarily complicate finding the will of God. If we’re keeping our ultimate task in mind, we can’t screw up God’s will as much as we think we can. Like Nehemiah, we can compare all of our choices back to the task God has given us and try to remain singularly focused on that. If one choice clearly takes us away from looking more like Jesus, that one is automatically out.

And the rest? If they’re all pretty evenly aligned with their potential for loving and serving God, then we use the tools God has given us for discerning his will—knowing his word, praying for guidance, and seeking advice from trustworthy people—and we make the best decision we can. But we don’t have to worry so much about choosing something that’s “out of God’s will” if it isn’t clearly going to impede our ability to live out our ultimate task. In the face of our everyday decisions over which job we take, school we pick, or city we live in, God’s will will happen just as he meant it to.


[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]