The Will of God can be a controversial topic, don’t you think?

Over the years I’ve heard a few different perspectives. Some say that there are three levels of God’s will, “that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (from Romans 12:2). That interpretation seems to imply that God’s plan for your life, or for a particular situation, can be very clear with precise, well defined boundaries.

Perhaps to the other extreme, I have read that Augustine of Hippo, a renowned theologan who lived around 400 AD advised his contemporaries to ‘love God and do what you want’. Taken all by itself, this idea can seem pretty crazy to many Christians.

I have discovered that for me, the day to day reality of following God is somewhere between those two extremes and can feel like a mishmash of excitement, fear, desire, resistance, hope, uncertainty and absolute confidence. A little like climbing into a kayak for the first time, knowing you don’t know how to prevent flipping over and having no idea what to do if it happens, seeing alligators sunning along the shore, while receiving an assuring push from a trusted friend, and all the time aware of the promises of beauty and interesting experiences that await you around the next bend.

As I’ve continued to learn from reading and evaluating my experience, I’ve developed some personal guidelines that I have used to help me when trying to discern which way our Father may be directing. I don’t consider that all these need to be met in order to feel confident I understand His leading. And I would be reluctant to positively declare that it cannot be His will if none of them seem to be true, sometimes ‘God works in mysterious ways’, eh? But again for me, and for what it’s worth, these thoughts have helped guide me to take action.

I have found that God’s directions will often be characterized by some or all of these statements:

• As best I can tell my heart is open to His leading
• It is not inconsistent with God’s written Word
• It serves others, helps to meet needs
• I feel attracted to it
• I am afraid of it, there is resistance
• Oftentimes others will encourage me in that direction

Those thoughts have been helpful to me. But very often there remains a fair amount of uncertainty. But even in the doubts there can be peace. Because we know He has a good heart. Charles Spurgeon beautifully said it this way, “God is too good to be unkind and he is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace his hand, we must trust his heart.” And if somehow we have misread the signs and made a mistake, God’s good and wise heart will let us know.

Perhaps like me you occasionally find yourself stuck in the fear and uncertainty of not knowing exactly what Father wants you to do with the rest of your life, or the next few weeks. That’s okay. But don’t let that stop you from taking action. Review the list above for some ideas, pray for guidance, read your Bible, and then go help someone, trusting that if you got it wrong, God’s kind heart will come to your rescue.

It’s a bit like climbing into a kayak for the first time! But if we don’t, we’ll miss the beauty, joy and satisfaction that can only come from trusting our God.