Just Do Something, by Kevin DeYoung
“What is God’s will for my life?”
We’d love to have a clear answer on whom we should marry, which job we should take, where we should go to church, and where we should live. And we might fear that if we make the wrong choice, we’ll be out of the center of God’s will, and we’ll miss God’s best for us. Is that the way God’s will works?
Kevin DeYoung would say no.
Kevin lays out three wills of God: the will of decree, desire, and direction. God’s will of decree is about his sovereignty—he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. His will of desire (or his moral will) points out the way we should go through his commandments. What we’re generally talking about then, when we ask about his will is his will of direction.
DeYoung gets at the heart of the matter, “Does God have a secret will of direction that He expects us to figure out before we do anything?”
Believing in providence, God does have a clear plan for our lives. He’s always at work, leading and blocking, guiding and thwarting. But, “He does not burden us with the task of divining His will of direction for our lives ahead of time.”
And this is a grace to us.
God’s not hiding something from us that we have to uncover. He’s not sneaky. Our Father delights in giving us good gifts. And he clearly reveals his will for our lives:
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification… (1Th 4:3 ESV)
God’s more concerned with your holiness than where you live or which job you should take.
God gives us the freedom as his children to make choices within his moral will. He gives us this freedom so that we might grow in wisdom and maturity and faith. Handing us answers on a platter wouldn’t cause growth. But as we make decisions and experience consequences, we get better at decision making, and we become wise.
So we no longer have to wring our hands, fretting that we’ll get it wrong and miss God’s best for us. And that gives us the freedom to just do something—which is the title of the book.