Can We Be Certain About Our Decisions?

Several months ago I wrote a column called Are You in the Center of God’s Will? A few days ago I received an email with the following question:

I recently read your article regarding living in God’s will day by day, moment by moment. Maybe you can help me with some confusion regarding making choices along the lines of God’s will and guidance. If the basic premise of Christianity is a vital ongoing relationship with the God of the universe through his Son, Jesus, by the power to the Holy Spirit why is it that determining God’s will or seeking His guidance is so difficult to ascertain? Very often the words “perhaps", “maybe", “I think” are used when someone believes God is directing them towards a certain path. If God desires to be intimate with us one would think that that presupposes a level of certainty when it comes to determining what God would have us do in various circumstances. I find that very often the Christian is in the position of a sleuth looking for clues from various sources rather than a follower walking close behind the path that God has laid out.

Here is my answer:

I think the problem comes because we use the phrase “God’s will” in a sense different from the biblical writers. We think in terms of decisions, but the will of God in Scripture doesn’t have much to do with decisions about marriage, jobs, money, career, and so on. The will of God in the Bible is usually stated in moral terms:

To become like Christ.
To live a pure life.
To live in harmony with fellow believers.
To pray to the Lord.
To preach the gospel.
To give as God prospers us.
To grow in the Word.

I don’t think God ever intended that we have certainty about this job or that job or living in this city or that city or even marrying this person or that person. We are to seek the Lord, use our intelligence, pray, read the Word, and then trust God to guide our steps as we move forward.

I believe the whole search for “certainty” is misguided in that it seeks something God never promised. That’s why the Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight.

So that’s why I said there is no such thing as the “center” of God’s will. What I didn’t say is that it is essentially a pagan concept because it seeks something God never promised to give us. On the decisions of life, I think we are intended to live in the “perhaps” realm because, frankly, those things we tend to obsess over really won’t matter that much 10,000 years from now. But what will matter is whether or not we truly sought to be godly, to walk in the Spirit, to manifest the life of Christ, and to make the gospel beautiful by the way we live. Those things are truly the will of God for all of us all the time.

See Discovering God’s Will for Your Life for more discussion of this topic. Your comments and additional insights are most welcome.