It means that God has a design in the difficulty of discerning. The motives and affections of our hearts, or “renewed minds,” are more clearly revealed in such decision making.

If God made more things explicit, we would tend to focus more on what we do rather than what we love. Like Pharisees, we would tend to whitewash our tombs with the appearance of obedience — to impress others — rather than deal with the dead bones of our self-righteous pride.

But in decisions that require discernment, the wheat is distinguished from the tares. We make such decisions based on what we really love. If deep down we love the world, this will become apparent in the pattern of decisions that we make — we will conform to this world.

But if we really love Jesus we will increasingly love what he loves — we will be transformed by renewed minds. And our love for him and his kingdom will be revealed in the pattern of small and large decisions that we make.

Read the whole post, When God’s Will Isn’t Clear.

Decisions. We all have to make them everyday – some important, most trivial. As followers of Christ, we’re desperate to make sure every decision is pleasing to God and might be part of His will for our lives.

One of the subtle dangers of this can be that we overcomplicate, overthink and overanalyse, agonising over every single decision. Wrestling to try and decipher where God would have us go and what He would have us do often leaves us confused, frustrated and spiritually drained. “If only God would show us what He wants us to do and we’ll do it in an instant” we think.

How quickly we forget and become complacent with the amazing miracle that God has revealed Himself to us in the person of His Son, and in His Word He’s given us all that we need as a guide for life! (2 Peter 1:3)

Kevin DeYoung in his book Just Do Something spells out God’s will for our lives.

1. God’s will is that we live holy, set-apart lives: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

2. We are to always rejoice, pray and give thanks: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

3. We are to know God’s will so we can bear fruit and know Him better. “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9)

4. The will of God is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is…be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18)

God’s will isn’t that we struggle with every decision, becoming anxious, fretting for fear of choosing the wrong path and mistaking a lack of activity for piety. Paul tells us that “[God] works all things to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11) Jesus Himself tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33)

DeYoung closes his book with the following paragraph:

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.

If we understand this, it can only have a liberating, peace-giving effect on us. What an encouragement to know that provided we live as the Bible tells us to, we are free to do as we please. So let’s make some bold decisions with confidence that we are walking in God’s will, the way of wisdom, and let’s attempt great things for God’s glory.

The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. (Psalm 50:1)

… that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deut. 8:3)

… and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Heb. 1:3)

Feel what it means to be entirely derivative. What is your life? –the consequence of divine causation and utter sufficiency.  Feel what it means that the earth’s orbit and our heartbeat all hangs on the One who must not stop speaking.

Even the prayer for Him to keep speaking is the effect of Him speaking. The prayer for Him to not stop speaking is itself the effect of Him not stopping. Grace, grace, grace.

This will happen. Now what does it mean for me? If this is my King, the One in whom by grace I take refuge, how do I factor now into this future reality? Here are a few observations:

1. I must be sure not to confuse the figure of Revelations 19:11-16 to be anyone other than Jesus. It is not me and it is not my example.
2. The conquerors who belong to Jesus are victors by giving up their lives for the sake of others, not by taking the lives of others.
3. The judgment that he administers on that last day is a judgment that we all deserve and that we would all experience if not for the sovereign grace to God to call and save sinners.
4. This judgment is not capricious, but is the display of God’s righteousness–the unswerving commitment to uphold the glory of His name.
5. I should be jealous for God’s glory, too. But my jealously for God’s glory is not executing judgment, but in giving up my own life out of love for others to display Christ’s worth.

By the way, doesn’t this thwart the intention is Islamic jihadism? How can one make war against those who are bowing their heads in love for the very ones who want to make war against them?

She doesn’t get this yet, but I am really calling her to faith in Jesus.

It goes this way: I tell her to not grab cups and drink out of them because I want to protect her from pouring hot coffee over her face. When she grabs any cup then I discipline her. It is a necessity. My spanking her is protecting her from burning her face. I want to protect her because I love her. Moreover, I want to protect her because Jesus gave her to me as my daughter; and me to her as her Daddy.

Daddys are supposed to protect their children and when I protect her then I know I am doing what Jesus called me to do. I am not only expressing my love for her, I am expressing Jesus’ love for her, too. My command for her to obey rests on that. “Elizabeth, obey your daddy because Jesus loves you and gave me to you to protect you.”

The fundamental issue here is not her obedience, but her faith. If she would believe in Jesus then listening to her daddy would make more sense.

Job 14:5 Since his days are determined,

and the number of his months is with you,

and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,

6 look away from him and leave him alone,

that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

The days of mankind are numbered. Humans die. I will die. You will die. In the midst of his distress and on the basis of this reality, Job asked that God just leave him alone. “If life is so short,” he ponders, “why don’t you just let people go and enjoy what little time they have here.”

Have you ever thought that before? This is the doctrine of life for many people. You operate everything you do based upon this logic. The problem is that it misses something very important. Humans were created for eternity. However short our physical life on the earth may be, that is not the end. In fact, it must be just the start. The soul of man is nothing temporal. Just consider the depths of the emotions. Consider what it means to be moved by something–a sunset, the beach shore, a light snow fall when it isn’t below 0. We are beings who have been made for forever.

Made for forever and made for God.

To believe anything else is actually to cheapen what it means to be alive. It is the greatest irony invented by humans: “living it up” is actually wasting your life.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon my being truly masculine, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that makes me to be any bit of truly masculine.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon the intensity of my affections for God, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that makes me to have any intense affection for God at all.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon my track record in decision-making, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that drives me to make any right decisions.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon my knowledge of theology, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that makes me to have any real knowledge of theology.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon my role or giftedness in the church, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that makes me to a part of the church at all.

Etc.

“I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day…

 “I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of hosts is his name.”

… Can’t a paraphrase go something like this:

Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, you’re afraid that man won’t think your humble, that they will say you are not smart, that they won’t approve of your ministry skills. Wait a minute, you have forgotten all about the LORD, your Maker, you are not thinking right about Me… the One who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. I am your God and you are afraid of all this stupid stuff like you are?! 

I am the LORD your God! 

Here is a subtitle that gets to the point and makes this thing worth a pre-order…

How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc. 

Thanks, Kevin DeYoung.