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“I just don’t have peace yet.”

“God isn’t opening any doors.”

“I’m not sure which way God is leading my heart.”

The more I am in ministry, the more I hear young people echoing some of the above sentiments when it comes to the future. Truth be told, I too have postponed important decisions for some of the same reasons.

The desire to discover the will of God is admirable. But what happens when your expectations for discovering God’s will don’t ever come to pass?

At the age of 19, when I was wrestling with the decision of buying a one-way ticket to Romania, I went to my pastor for advice. I was waiting for some sort of heavenly confirmation of my plans. My pastor delivered a few gentle words that revolutionized my understanding of God’s will: “Trevin, no one wants you to know God’s will more than God does.”

Liberation! God’s will was not some mysterious code I had to decipher. It was a realm in which I could make wise decisions.

Kevin DeYoung’s book, Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc. (Moody, 2009) will probably have a similar effect on people who pick it up. Just Do Something is a short book (only 120 pages, and small in size) that can easily be read in an hour or two, but it still packs quite a punch.

Kevin gently corrects evangelicalism’s often-misguided teaching about the will of God. Lining the shelves of Christian bookstores are books intended to help people discover God’s will. Yet, much of the standard advice turns out to be paralyzing to young people. Other books focus on trivial decisions (where to park your car, what outfit to put on, etc.).

Kevin points us back to the sovereingty of God, encouraging us to take comfort in the will of God. The general will of God has been revealed to us. Christians are called to live within that moral framework.

According to Kevin, here is the will of God for our lives:

“God’s will for our lives is much simpler than the conventional approach. The will of God for our lives is that we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. The most important decision we face is the daily decision to live for Christ and die to self. If we do those two things then we are free to choose between jobs and schools and locations. God wants us to stop obsessing about the future and trust that He holds the future. We should put aside the passivity and the perfectionism and the quest for perfect fulfillment and get on with our lives. God does not have a specific plan for our lives and he means for us to decipher ahead of time.” (63)

Kevin writes that God does have a specific plan for our lives, and he is not trying to hide it from us. When we are trusting in God to work out his purposes, we are no longer paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake. Instead, we can “just do something!” We are to do what we believe what God has called us to do with the gifts that God has given us. And even when we are not 100% sure of our decision, we trust that God knows the outcome, and that our life will be part of his sovereign plan.

Kevin’s book differs from others on the will of God because he chooses to focus less on discerning the “specific plan” for your personal life and more on the cultivation of wisdom. We don’t make decisions based on signs and circumstances as much as we make decisions based on biblical wisdom. Instead of asking for revelation from God as to what you should do, ask for the wisdom from God to be able to make the right kind of decisions.

Just Do Something would make a great Graduation gift for the young people in our churches. And yet, anyone of any age can benefit from the teaching here.  Kevin’s book frees us from passivity and paralysis. He calls us to get on with the task of “doing something” to the glory of God.

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