The Will of God - Sittser

I enjoyed Jerry Sittser’s book When God Doesn't Answer Your Prayer so much, I decided to read another. The following are excerpts from his book, The Will of God as a Way of Life: How to Make Every Decision With Peace and Confidence. (Zondervan, 2000). This book was formerly called, Discovering God’s Will.

I discovered that the Bible says very little about the will of God as a future pathway. Instead, the Bible warns us about anxiety and presumption concerning the future, assures us that God is in control, and commands us to do the will of God we already know in the present. (22)

Is God’s will something he hides? Does it consist primarily of what we don’t know? I assume, rightly or wrongly, that God is always clear when he needs to be. He does not play a celestial game to frustrate us. He cares about us much more than we care about our children. He delights in us. He wants us to do his will because he knows this will bring us true happiness. God has enough trouble persuading us to do that will. Why would he make it more difficult on him and on us by hiding it? (26)

Our preoccupation with what lies ahead betrays a desire to control a future that simply cannot be controlled. We want the security of knowing what the future will bring rather than risk trusting God as the unknown future gradually unfolds before us. (26-27)

The will of God concerns the present more than the future; it deals with our motives as well as our actions; it focuses on the little decisions we make every day even more than the big decisions we make about the future. The only time we really have both to know and to do God’s will is the present moment. . .

. . . We already know the will of God for our daily lives, however cloudy the future appears to be. That we do not know what God wants for tomorrow does not excuse us from doing his will today.

This perspective on the will of God gives us astonishing freedom. If we seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, which is the will of God for our lives, then whatever choices we make concerning the future become the will of God for our lives. There are many pathways we could follow, many options we could pursue. As long as we are seeking God, all of them can be God’s will for our lives, although only one – the path we choose – actually becomes his will.

God does have a will for our lives – that we seek first his kingdom. But God allows us to follow many possible pathways to live that will out. . . (34-35)

The hidden assumption behind the conventional approach to the will of God is that having many options is a good thing, but only one option is God’s will for us. The burden then falls on us to figure out which is the right and true one. God’s will is like the one present under the Christmas tree intended for us, though there are many other presents there, all of which could be ours. We must somehow discern which is ours, in spite of the fact that none of the packages has our name on it. We are therefore absolutely confounded in our search for which on is God’s will for us. (58)

What if the freedom we value so much – the freedom to have anything we want – keeps us from experiencing the freedom we really need – to choose what God wills for us?

The will of God has to do with what we already know, not what we must figure out. It is contained in Jesus’ command that we seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness. The will of God, then, consists of one clear mandate – that we make God the absolute center of our lives. Ironically, it is exactly in making this choice that we find true freedom. It is the freedom of obedience. That is the will of God for all of us. (59)

His (Jesus) way is narrow because it squeezes all selfishness out of us. It deprives us of the right to live for ourselves. Jesus demands everything from us, not because he wants to make life miserable for us but because he wants to give us purpose and joy. He knows that real life is gained by giving our lives up to God.

Token obedience betrays an errant theology. We think that real life is gained by what we keep to ourselves, not by what we give to God. So we do the minimum in terms of obedience – just enough to get by – so that we have plenty of choices left over for ourselves. In our way of thinking, God’s commands are like paying taxes. They are part of the deal of being a Christian, but hardly a welcomed part. So we fulfill our obligation to God and, once that is finished, start to enjoy life again.

But Jesus will have none of that. He rejects all token obedience. (61-62)

. . . in the end the will of God has nothing to do with us – the direction we take, the priorities we choose, the decisions we make. It is not about us at all; it is about God. God will go with us wherever we go because he is God. He is more committed to us than we will ever be committed to him, more eager to guide us than we will ever be open to his guidance. If anything, we can know and do the will of God because of God’s prior disposition and action. God chooses us, gives us grace, and redeems the story of our lives. That is ultimately his will for us. Only then does he call us to do his will in the ordinariness of life. The assurance that our choices are in fact God’s will has nothing to do with the wisdom of our choices, though we ought to make wise choices – for our own sake and for God’s glory. Rather, it has everything to do with the bounty of God’s grace. He is the reason why we can march through life with bold confidence. (105)

Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?' or "What will we drink?' or "What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today. Matthew 6:31-34 (NRSV)