The Will of God Revisited

Many months ago, I wrote a post about the will of God. My argument then was motivated by the frustration of not knowing anything of God's will for my life. As someone who eagerly sought specific revelation on what my path in life was to be, I concluded after several years of aimlessly searching for that knowledge that God had no specific, individualized will for our live and if he did, he didn't reveal it frequently. God had instituted a certain standard of living which we were to follow and the long-term outcomes of our desires, talents, goals, planning, and actions were the primary determinant of our ultimate destiny on this earth. That is to say that God had general guidelines for human conduct, but gave no provisions for us to endeavor on a specific path.

I now wish to amend that line of reasoning based on experience I've gained in the last three months. I have come to realize that part of my original statement is correct, that God has set out a set of general principles which we are to follow. This then constitutes God's general will for humanity. Where I was wrong was in arguing against God having a specific will for one's life.

I got derailed in the mechanics of figuring out the details of God's specific will. Instead, what I have learned is that the only way to have any understanding of God's specific will is to do the general will of God, to live uprightly. Even still, I will probably never get a clear long-term picture of where I'm supposed to go in life. A clear understanding of my ultimate destination on this Earth would actually be a major disturbance. It would violate my ability to chose whether to follow God or not and it would probably leave me in a state of stagnant complacency. I do not believe that God has any interest in us being in either state. The idea of one final destination towards which we strive also presumes that God only endorses one path through life. I find this to be a rather limiting perspective of God, that he couldn't orchestrate the world in such a way to allow more than one option. I don't subscribe to the strict determinism this implies because of the many other theological problems it poses.

In the context of Christianity, the will of God is not an intellectual assent to a particular proposition. It is not an abstract ideal that is handed to us on a prophetic silver platter. Rather it is a program of action. The only place in the Bible that mentions any means whatsoever to find out what the specific will of God (Romans 12:1-2) implies a process of profound transformation which can only come from full obedience to God in the first place.

If we are never given to specific instructions on how to divine the specific will of God for our lives, why bother? My experience indicates that if I spend all my time trying to illuminate cryptic details of an uncertain destiny, I will waste my time and frustrate myself to no end. Instead, if I just try to live rightly today, it allows God room to work out the details without my fear and complacency standing in the way.

Although this path is frought with uncertainty, it ought not to frighten us since we will already be taking the necessary steps to maintain our contact with God. This intimacy of sorts allows us to trust God more deeply way the outcomes are uncertain. So let us put aside our divining rods, our parking lot prophets, our psychics, and our best-laid plans and let us do our best to love others, love God, and be of maximum service. Only then will we be fulfilled.