A day does not go by without decisions. Some may be insignificant, like our coffee order. While others are incredibly significant, like whether we believe Jesus of Nazareth to be God. And while our position on Christ is eternally significant, all of our decisions do matter. And the larger the decision—typically speaking—the greater the weight. Where should I go to college? Should I marry this person? Should I stay at my job? Should I buy this house? Should we send our kids to public school or private school? Should we foster children? These choices not only carry burdens, but they often plague us with paralyzing indecision as we turn to God in prayer and ask for knowledge of his will. But how are we to know God’s will in response to these prayers? And how do we make decisions so as to walk in that will?
Here’s the short of it: God-honoring decision-making is done by exercising faith through wisdom—given by the Spirit through the renewing of our minds according to the Word of God— so that we might joyfully do what we want. Now, that’s a mouthful; I’ll unpack it below. But understanding this biblical decision-making process will bring the freedom and joy we long for.
Understanding the Will of God
First things first, can we know God’s will for our lives? The biblical answer is yes and no. Theologians have talked about the singular will of God in two facets: his revealed will and his hidden will. God’s revealed will is that aspect of his divine plan which he has clearly and specifically made known through his Word—the sixty-six books of the Bible. While his hidden will is that part of his plan which, in his sovereignty, he has hidden from us as he meticulously ordains all that has and will come to pass. These two aspects of God’s will are not insignificant theological details—they are biblical truths that can settle our souls in the midst of our decision-making.
The difference between the two aspects is that his revealed will can be known before the decision is made while his hidden will is only known after the fact. Meaning, we see God’s full will for our lives only when we look in our past. His revealed will testifies that Scripture “is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105 ESV). God’s Word gives clear commands for us to follow, and his will is that we would be sanctified to look like Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:3). However, his hidden will rests on the truth that God’s “thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways [his] ways,” (Isaiah 55:8 ESV) and that he knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). So does he know who we will marry, where we will go to school, and what house we will buy? Yes. He knows everything. However, we cannot know everything. But we can know that all things are working out according to his plan. Therefore, before we make a decision, we should first ask ourselves if we are seeking his revealed will or his hidden will. And if we are seeking his revealed will, then let’s pick up our Bibles and read.
For example, say a boss asks us to cut corners at work for the sake of profit. What should we do? Well Proverbs 28:20 and Colossians 3:9 provide overwhelming clarity on God’s will for that decision—God’s people do not cut corners. Honesty and integrity matter to God because he is honest and he is holy.
But what about a question that is morally neutral—like, “Should I take this new job offer?” Assuming both our current job and the offer are legal and ethical means of earning a living, we have stepped into the realm of seeking God’s hidden will for our lives. The Bible doesn’t tell us what job to take. Yet we should still pray and ask for guidance and wisdom in that decision. So is it right to ask for God’s will to be known? And even if we do ask, how will we know his response? For starters, we must be careful not to conclude God’s will for our lives on misconceptions about how Christians should make decisions.
Decision-Making Misconceptions
Too often we allow cultural quips and catchy sayings to influence the way we believe the Bible calls us to make decisions rather than turning to the Scriptures. For example, we may make a decision because we prayed and “God has clearly opened a door” or that we “feel an overwhelming sense of peace about the decision.” Now, these both sound nice, but are they biblical?
In Acts 16:25–32, we see Paul and Silas in a Philippian jail cell where God supernaturally caused an earthquake that opened every cell door and loosed the shackles off of their hands and feet. If there was ever an open door from God in the life of a believer, it was here. If Paul allowed our “open door policy” to tell him what to do, he would have run out of that prison cell confident it was God’s will for him to leave. Yet Paul remained. He chose to not walk through the open door, and as a result, the Philippian jailer and all his household heard the gospel and were saved. A door was opened, Paul did not go through it, and souls were saved. If nothing else, this narrative should keep us from being quick to allow open doors to make our decisions for us. But what about inner peace?
We need look no farther than Christ himself when he was in the garden sweating blood as he obediently prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42 ESV). Jesus was obediently walking in the will of the Father at the expense of his own temporal and physical peace. Praise God that Jesus went through with the cross, because without his substitutionary death, we would have no hope for salvation. God’s will was worked out on the cross through Jesus’s excruciating suffering.
In light of these brief expositions of Scripture we have to conclude that not walking through an open door and choosing obedience at the expense of momentary peace have both turned out to be the wise decision for that moment. So what? Well, I’m not saying we should disqualify the open doors and the peace we may have but, rather, we must not let these factors make our decisions for us. Instead, Jesus invites his followers to trust him and walk in the way of obedient faith-filled wisdom.
The Way of Wisdom
When God’s Word does not provide a specific answer, we shift from faith through clear obedience to faith through wisdom. This does not mean that we throw obedience out the door. Rather, we walk in obedience by exercising wisdom when the matter is not black and white. Let’s take our question from earlier as an example: “Should I take this new job offered to me?” Again, if both jobs are ethical and righteous work that can bring honor to God, then the decision is not a moral one and in itself is not sinful. So how do we know which one is the “right” job to take?
As we spend time in God’s Word, our minds begin to see the world in a way that is informed by the Bible. That means that rather than disengage our minds and wait for an open door or internal peace, we can think rationally about the positives and negatives of the decisions in front of us. Faith is not the opposite of reason. Faith is always informed by reason. This is not a dry rationalism, but the reasons we hold for our beliefs. God is honored when we use the faculties that he has given us to think wisely. This is why he promises to give wisdom to those who ask for it (James 1:5)! So here are some questions that we can ask when operating with wisdom:
- Would either of the two options lead me into disobedience to God’s Word?
- Am I allowing fear—that is not a fear of the Lord—to influence my decision?
- Am I choosing one option because it is the easier of the two?
- Am I making this decision alone, or have I allowed others to speak into the decision and truly listened to their guidance?
- Am I running away from relationships or responsibilities rather than pursuing reconciliation or duty?
- Have I considered how either of these decisions will affect those that I care about?
- Do one of the two options enable me to be a better steward of the money and resources that God has given me?
- Do either of these options interfere with my ability to worship with the church on a weekly basis?
- How will both of these options affect my future?
While these questions are not exhaustive, they get the point across: We must honor God by doing our due diligence and thinking through all of the blessings and consequences of the decisions we make. As seen above, some of the more nuanced questions may reveal that there are sinful parts of our heart that influence our decision that we must repent of and allow the Bible to correct us. Even though neither of the jobs are sinful, choosing one over the other because you are wrongly fleeing relationships or responsibilities would be sinful. Therefore, we must engage our Spirit-developed and Bible-saturated reason to try and conclude which of the two options will enable us to be most faithful to the Lord. However, we may ask all of these questions and more only to realize that there is no “better” decision between the two. So now what?
We Do What We Want
If we have prayed, spent time in God’s Word, allowed others to speak into our lives, and thought rationally about the consequences only to realize there is no “better” option, then there is one final question to ask: What do we want to do? You probably shouldn’t expect a whisper from God saying, “Take what’s behind door number two.” Can He operate in this way? Sure, he’s God. But the infrequency with which he did this in the Scriptures should lead us to conclude this is not his normative way of operating. Remember, we cannot know God’s hidden will for our lives, but we can make a decision in faith knowing that he is sovereign and uses all things for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). We can be confident that he will use whatever decision we make to transform us from one degree of glory to another so that we would look more like our Savior (2 Corinthians 3:18). What college should you go to? Which one do you want to go to? God promises to be with you wherever you go. Which job should you take? Which one do you want? Whatever your hands find to do, work for the glory of God. Should you foster children? Do you have the financial, emotional, and physical margin in your lives to do so? Do you want to do it? Then joyfully welcome marginalized children into your home, knowing that God will do a work in you and through you. The freedom of faith is that we never need be paralyzed by indecision as we wait for God’s response. Either God has given you an answer in his Word or he has given you his Spirit and his wisdom to make a Scripture-informed, God-honoring decision. As Kevin DeYoung says:
So the end of the matter is this: Live for God. Obey the Scriptures. Think of others before yourself. Be holy. Love Jesus. And as you do these things, do whatever else you like, with whomever you like, wherever you like, and you’ll be walking in the will of God.1
Kevin L. DeYounng
If we are sitting in a place of indecision, in the name of faith, about something that is specific to our lives that is not sinful, then we must pray for wisdom and exercise faith by making a decision. Faith brings freedom to our lives, not paralysis. Therefore, we can have fun making faithful decisions as we watch the will of God for our lives play out right in front of our eyes. Go! Go in wisdom! Go in faith!
- Kevin L. DeYoung, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will Or How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Impressions, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, Etc. (Moody Publishers, 2009), 122. ↩︎
Photo credit: Jenna Martin
Brad Young (MDiv, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a husband, a father of two young kids, and a pastor of a church in Cincinnati, OH. He cares about the Christlike formation of God's people and is set on helping others truly know God through developing right theology. He is an avid reader in search of thought-provoking books and writes for his own publication, A Practical Theology.
