Discerning God's Will

​When a young candidate for ministry asked a seasoned elder in our church how to discern the will of God for her life, the elder smiled and said, “Shucks, we all do what we want to do and then call it God’s will.” I laughed along with the rest of the preachers in the room. We laughed because it resonated with our experience, but none of us would have said it out loud. We would have searched for a more spiritual response, one that offered words of wisdom for the young neophyte.   
 
This conversation happened years ago. With each passing year, I’ve become more and more convinced that the elder’s response wasn’t a reductionist view of God’s will; on the contrary, it was a golden, tidbit of wisdom. I’ve come to believe the best way to discern God’s will for our lives is to pay attention to the true desires of our own heart and then pursue those desires with all the passion and gratitude we can muster.
 
The psalmist says it like this, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps. 37:3–4) The key to discerning God’s will is to trust, dwell, and delight in God; do this and your heart’s desire will become a trustworthy guide—a compass that will help you discover God’s great desire for your life.
 
If you find yourself in the same spot as my young friend, asking, “What is God’s will for my life?” Here are three things you can do to help bring clarity and confidence to your decisions about the future.

Trust God with your whole heart and do good.  Learning to trust and follow the desires of your heart starts with trusting God more than you trust yourself. Proverbs 19:2 says, “Desire without knowledge is not good; how much more will hasty feet miss the way.”  The danger of making life decisions on the whims of your heart, without engaging knowledge, is the simple fact that our hearts are easily deceived; and sometimes, they are flat–out deceptive. When we make trusting and knowing God our number one priority, God will help us distinguish between our pseudo passions, (the desires rooted in lust, greed, and selfish ambition) and our real passions, (the desires rooted in our true selves, those God-given desires for the things of life that make us fully human.) A good guide for making life decisions when you’re not sure if you can trust your heart is to follow John Wesley’s three simple rules: Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.  

Dwell in the boundaries of God’s land. Sometimes people forget how big God is and fail to grasp how vast are the boundaries of God’s kingdom. It is a mammoth mistake to shrink God’s kingdom to church property, church business, and Christian ministry. When Christians live in a “church-centric” bubble they are prone to forget the boundaries of God’s land includes all of life—every eco-system on the globe, every person on the planet, and every social sphere in society. If you are trying to discern God’s will for your life, it is good to remember, you are free to dream as big as your heart desires. The sky is the limit. There are a gazillion ways for you to join God in God’s redemptive mission of reconciliation. Jesus had a vision for creation. He saw a time looming in the future, when his followers would live in community, loving God, loving their neighbors, and loving the planet in such whimsical ways that the realities of God’s kingdom would actually become the realities of earth. Anywhere you live, everywhere you go, whatever you put your hands to doing, you are in a position to express God’s will and help Jesus fulfill his mission and vision.

Delight in the Lord.  If you are perplexed about a vocational decision or trying to discern what to do next with your life, push the pause button and remember—God is more interested in your relationship with God than what you do for God. Guard your heart, don’t let the values of this world—the values of expediency, up-ward mobility, fame, fortune, and the like—be the measures with which you base your decisions. Instead, delight in God. Drink deep from streams of joy and find time to soak in God’s presence every day. Sing loud. Laugh often. Look intently for the signs of God’s presence everywhere you go, most especially in the people you meet along the way. When you delight in God, the joy of the Lord will become your strength; and like Jesus, the joy that is set before you, will help you navigate difficult decisions and endure the most challenging circumstances. (See Hebrews 12:2.) Your desires will be grounded in your true self and reveal the person God created you to be.   

​In Galatians 5:16, Saint Paul says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” These three instructions from Psalm thirty–seven provide an excellent picture of what it looks like to walk in the Spirit: trust God wholeheartedly; stretch the boundaries of your life to include all of God’s kingdom; delight in God every day. 
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If you walk in the Spirit, the desires that pound in your chest will honor your true self and the God who created you. Shucks, when your heart beats in rhythm with God’s heart, you can do whatever you want to do and call it God’s will.