I am amazed at the incredible variety of beverages available at Starbucks. The number of choices you have to make just to order a cup of coffee is almost staggering (at least 29 different blends to choose from!).

This parallels what decision making is like in today's world. Never before has it been so complex. Individualization and globalization have driven people to make choices that others made for them throughout most of history.

We choose who we will marry, when at one time most marriages were arranged. We choose where we will live, while most people used to live in the community of their birth. We choose our own vocations instead of taking on the family business. And the list goes on.

The complexity and importance of decision making is also obvious when  we consider the weighty consequences which follow our choices. James Petty observes:

When we seek guidance from God, we are not like a student pondering the great questions of life safely seated in a library. . . . We are more like a pilot seeking to land a commercial airliner filled with passengers. For a pilot, even the best of them, the pressing need is for current information on position, weather, visibility, and local air traffic. The thought that communication with the control tower might not be possible, predictable, and clear is more than unsettling--it is the stuff of horror films. In a sense, all of us are like pilots in flight. The decisions we make will affect many others, and many things can go wrong. Our relationships, our jobs, our health and safety can be compromised by a single bad decision.^[1]

Furthermore, Petty continues, "In the industrial and postindustrial West . . . there are decisions to be made minute by minute. For example, a married couple today must answer, in a few short years, questions that most Christians in the 1600s did not even have to ask. Here is a sample list:

• How many children should we have?
• Should both partners leave the home and enter the work force?
• Should I divorce or adjust to the evils of my spouse?
• Should we use a public, private, or Christian school [or home school]?
• Which church or youth group should we choose?
• How much debt should we incur for school, home, or car?
• How much auto, liability, and hospitalization insurance should we carry?

All these decisions and dozens more are made within a space of ten to twelve years after marriage."^[2]

Followers of Jesus sincerely desire to know and do God's will, but how can we know? The variety and diversity of the answers can be confusing. Let's consider two aspects of God's will taught in Scripture.

1. God's revealed will shows us how to live a life of love that reflects His kingdom priorities. This is also called God's "moral will" or "will of command." This is what Ephesians 5:17 talks about when it reads, "Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

2. God's secret will, also called His "sovereign will" or "will of decree," is hidden from our view. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut. 29:29).

God's secret will also mysteriously embraces every life in all of history, including the minute details of our lives. It cannot be thwarted.

As God Himself says in Isaiah 46:9-10, "Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.'"

Recognizing this aspect of God's will, James urges us to plan tentatively: "You ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil" (Jas. 4:15-16).

God's secret will is usually evident later, such as when Joseph told his evil brothers that though they meant evil against him, God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20). While his brothers were responsible for their sin, God trumped their intentions with His own good plan.

God's secret will embraces everything--good and bad, large and small. This is why:

• Jesus can say, "But even the hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. 10:30).
• An evil king can be struck down by seemingly random circumstances yet be within God's providence (1 Kings 22:34).
• "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will" (Prov. 21:1).

Although God's sovereign will ensures that all things will work together for our good if we love Him (Rom. 8:28), it is never an excuse to ignore obeying God's moral will revealed in Scripture. In fact, even when we don't know God secret will behind events and circumstances, our responsibility is to live at all times within the parameters of what God has clearly revealed as His will for our lives.

Because of its importance in guiding our decisions in daily life, let's focus on three principles that will help us understand God's revealed will. 

Understanding God's Revealed Will

1. The will of the Lord is revealed in the Word of the Lord.

This doesn't mean that we can discover God's will for specific decisions by looking for specific answers in texts taken out of context.

For example, I recently heard about a man who was pondering whether he should take a trip to the Holy Land and tour Jerusalem. Then one morning during his devotions, he read that Paul went up to Jerusalem. He concluded that it was God's will for him to go--even though Paul's journey had nothing to do with the actual situation of this man's life!

Nor does this mean that we can play "Bible roulette"--where you pick up your Bible and pray, "Lord, I'll read wherever it falls open and accept that as the indication of Your will."

Scripture must be rightly interpreted and applied. Only as we understand what the original text meant to its original audience can we rightly derive personal applications.

So, very simply, God's Word reveals God's will in general categories, which we then apply to our specific circumstances. For example, it is God's will that we:

• Be pure and holy. "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality" (1 Thess. 4:3).
• Be thankful and content. "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:18).
• Do good. "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people" (1 Pet. 2:15).

In summary, God's will revealed in His Word does two things: It tells us how not to live and how to live; it tells us what to put off (sin) and what to put on (Christ and the character of Christ).

2. The will of the Lord is patterned after the gospel of the Lord.

This just takes the first principle a level deeper and explains the basic blueprint for our lives. Jesus Christ, in His self-giving death and life-giving resurrection, is our blueprint or model; therefore, we are to have self-giving humility as we serve one another (see Phil. 2:5-11; 2 Cor. 8:1-9, 1 Jn. 3:16).

This is kingdom, gospel-shaped living. This is bringing God's rule to a fallen world through His people embodying the gospel in every sphere of life.

We shouldn't view life as "sacred" and "secular," but as "redeemed" and "unredeemed." Then decisions about everything from our vocations to our marriages, from the environment to our entertainment, can be made in light of God's redeeming work.

3. The will of the Lord is empowered by the Spirit of the Lord.

That is, our knowledge of and obedience to God's will is directly related to the Spirit illuminating our minds for understanding and filling our lives for obedience.

The Spirit is wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:16-17), and it is He who makes us alive as He inhabits us as God's new temple (2:19-22). He also strengthens us for communion with Christ (3:16-17), unites us as one body in Christ (4:1-6), and fills us for life together in all of our relationships (5:18-6:20).

We do not have to guess at God's will. By relying on the Spirit of God to illuminate what God has revealed to us in Scripture and in the gospel, knowing and doing the will of God in most of the specific situations of our own lives becomes much easier.

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[1] James C. Petty, Step by Step: Divine Guidance for Ordinary Christians (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishers, 1999) 18-19.

[2] Petty, 20-21.