A Christian's Habits: Chapter Fourteen
The Habit of Finding the Will of God
“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
-Genesis 12:1
Randy’s Introduction:
My life has not progressed in the way I expected. Over the years, I’ve drawn the blueprints of several life strategies, majoring on personal strengths, moving at a solid and achievable pace, ever upward to the next level of life and beyond. I wouldn’t say that God ignored my plans. I’d just say he vetoed them for a better plan; a plan that became visible to me step by step, threat by threat, unexpected turn by unexpected turn. Lookin back, I’ve never been privy to God’s blueprint for my life. Just the next step. I think that is the way it is supposed to be.
But our religious institutions, often unintentionally, can give us a false sense of security. Intended or not, followers of Jesus can conclude that their faith journey is about attending church, giving their tithe, listening to the sermon, and applying what they can as they go through life. If you do those things, you are good to go as a Christian. For those who want to excel, you can take the next level by joining a committee, serving in an outreach program, marching publicly in a cause or you can become a member of the church staff. Now, when our churches are working right they can support and strengthen our spiritual journey. But even then they are never meant to replace seeking and finding the will of God in the everyday events of our own life.
Robert Speer was an institutional insider, holding key positions in Christian organizations most of his life. Yet, he recognized the need for every Christian to develop the habit, not just of seeking, but of finding the will of God for their lives. This was so critical that he saved it for the last habit in the last chapter of his book.
Some of his previous chapters have left us wanting more specific wisdom about building the particular habit he describes. But in this chapter, we get not one, not three, not even five, not even ten, but eleven steps we can take to habituate seeking and finding the will of God in our lives. But before we jump to those bullet points, it is important to note that these come after he emphasizes what we are actually seeking. In our day and age, we look to our particular strengths and to the proper strategies to get the most out of life. Speer urges us to start elsewhere.
To find the will of God, he tells us, we must look, not first to personal strengths and strategies, but for “the right work of God for us.” Only when we are clear on God’s plan for our life can we then look to the personal strengths we will need to use and the best strategies by which we will use them.
That being said, Speer’s view of finding the will of God is not about one grand vision that guides us for the rest of our lives to our dream destination. As Speer says, “The will of God is not a visible and material object. It is a way of the soul.” This habit, then, is a way of life that seeks God’s will moment by moment, in small responsibilities and well as in big decisions. The Habit of Finding the will of God is about discerning what God has put in front of us in the present moment and doing it.
So without further ado, Robert Speer’s final habit, Chapter fourteen, The Habit of Finding the Will of God.
“We lean then not upon the firmness of our own resources, but upon the mighty grasp of God and his will upon our lives.”
I. The Most Important Thing in Life.
Are you clear on the work that God has for you?
The most important thing in life to look for is the will of God. Nothing can be of more significance to each of us than his own right life work, which that will assigns. “For what does it profit a man,” asked Jesus, “to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?”1 Which we may interpret to mean, in the language of our own condition, what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but to miss his life work? God has such a work for each one of us. It is made up of all the works he has for us to do day by day. We need, above all things, the habit of always finding this work.
The strength of life consists in the power of the grip of God’s purpose upon us. Has it control of us? The hold of a man upon truth, it has been remarked, is of less consequence than the hold of the truth upon the man. How fast does it hold him? How completely does it dominate him? These are the questions which also arise regarding our lives and the will of God. Does it have a grip on us? How masterfully does it hold us? It is alright for us to talk of our purpose for God, but the great reality is God’s purpose for us. When we have been absorbed in that, then at last we know what strength and rest are. We lean then not upon the firmness of our own resources, but upon the mighty grasp of God and his will upon our lives.
We have no right to fall into the habit of drifting with regard to the will of God. Many people move along, accepting all that comes without scrutiny, assuming that the path of least effort, least resolution, least resistance, is the will of God. Sometimes it is, and sometimes, oftener, it is not. We are bound to think, to open life to all the divine possibilities, to consider anything that may be able to show us that it is the will of God for us. "The family money was in that business," said a young man studying for the ministry, of a great business firm, "and I might have gone in there too. It would have meant a good deal more in the way of return to the family, but I didn't see that that was where I wanted to put my life." So he chose what God chose for him, entirely apart from the natural and obvious thing for him. If we are going to find the will of God we must be willing to look for it where it is.
II. Often where you don’t expect it.
How have you been surprised by God’s will for your life?
Many men have been diverted from what they at first wanted and thought was God's will, but found out in time was not. Every man who is following a selfish or evil course will find himself wrenched away from that the moment he seeks the will of God. But even among good men the will of God is constantly a surprise. David Livingstone desired ardently to go to China. He had been interested in China through Gutzlaff. But God's will took him to Africa. Robert Morrison wanted to go to Africa. God's will took him to China. Griffith John wanted to go to Madagascar. But God's will led him to central China. Whoever would habitually follow the will of God must be prepared for surprises—all of them ultimately far better than our original designs.
“God's custom is to show not the end of the way, but the way.”
And now, assuming we are willing to follow the will of God, how may we get into the habit of knowing what it is?
III. Eleven Steps in The Habit of Finding the Will of God
Start small.
(1) First, then, however great our problems ahead may be, there is always some small duty near. The first thing is to do that, to get into the habit of always doing that. That will lead on to the next thing. Life is a unity. It may look like a chaos and tangle, but it is one, not a heap of detached items. It is rather like a long twine. What we need to do is to take hold where we can and work straight along. So in finding duty we need to accept the present task. To shirk our present assignment blinds us for seeing future assignment. The acceptance of present duty teaches us the habit of doing all duty, of ever knowing God's will.
(2) Think carefully of the reasons for and against the various possible courses of action, and balance them as well as you can. In his reminiscences, John D. Rockefeller tells how, in the early years of the Standard Oil Company, he and his associates were always ready to consider and to discuss any proposal whatever. They were looking for the best methods, and never took it for granted that there were no better ones than those they were following. If men act in this way in business, much more in the supreme thing of all ought we to be openminded and thoughtful.
(3) Seek unselfish, disinterested and highminded counsel. Many people ask advice of those who will not counsel them impartially, but whose judgment is biased by desire. And even when they ask disinterested counsel, it is not always high-minded. People who do not themselves live in the will of God, and who have no habit of regarding it, are poor people to consult.
(4) Above all others whom we consult, we should advise with God through prayer. His counsel is worth more than that of anyone else, and he is ready to give it. Because of our own ignorance, our helplessness and impatience, because of the spiritual hindrances without and within with which only prayer can cope, because God knows what we cannot know and makes his knowledge available for our guidance, we ought to seek the habit of discernment of duty through prayer.
(5) We should put off all unnecessary decisions as to details. Such details usually take care of themselves in any case. But we should settle, as soon as possible, the great questions of principle. God's custom is to show not the end of the way, but the way. What will come later on in the way we must not ask. We must settle now the direction of the way. The earlier we decide the better, for the sake of our character, for the sake of our preparation for the future, for the sake of our influence now. We have no such assurance of the future as will warrant us in putting off the acceptance of God's true will for our lives.
“The higher our hearts are lifted above the material and transient, the more fully and joyfully and naturally will they move among men, ruling the present world and not being ruled by it.”
(6) Let us keep ever before us the Scripture principles of duty-knowing and duty doing: "Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness";2 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal";3 "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal";4 "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is."5 In all things let Jesus Christ "have the preeminence."6 The higher our hearts are lifted above the material and transient, the more fully and joyfully and naturally will they move among men, ruling the present world and not being ruled by it.
(7) Let us habitually ask what is morally right and face this question unflinchingly and under the scrutiny of Christ. What society approves is of no great consequence. The important question is, "What is in accord with the character of God?" Righteousness is not the consensus of opinion. It is what Christ is. We shall always recognize God's will if we always see God in Christ and test all things in that presence.
(8) We must not be timid about taking chances. Faith is a venture. It is a reasonable venture—far more reasonable than unwillingness to take the venture—but still it is a venture. If we never leap into the dark we shall never find eternal life or eternal service here, or the Eternal City hereafter. The will of God is not a visible and material object. It is a way of the soul. Only the soul's eyes can discern it. The habit of seeing it is the habit of seeing with the inward vision.
(9) We can fortify the habit of doing God's will by ever choosing the personal duties. Jesus always did this. He was always accessible to souls. No enterprise was more important to him than the service of souls, of living persons. Personal duty should always be given the preference by us. As over against any general, indefinite, institutional calls, there are always the calls of particular men, women and children. These are the important things. If we get into the habit of finding people who need help and of helping them, we shall be following the religion of God, as James7 defines it.
(10) There are two selves in each of us—a superior and an inferior. We are never in any doubt as to which is which. We may be in doubt as to some outer problem, but we know the better nature in us. What does it require? The better within us can never be satisfied save by the will of God.
(11) Lastly, almost everything will depend on how commanding the conception of duty is with us. If our habit is to do duty, and in our minds and hearts we exalt duty as the loftiest thing in life, we shall be able to find what each particular duty is much more easily than if the whole notion of duty is slovenly and careless. If we regard the will of God as the one commanding thing, and habitually order our lives by the desire to do it, we shall have no trouble in acquiring the habit of recognizing always what it is.
There could be no greater or finer habit than this. We have a fine old hymn which
exalts it in the one noble line :
To do Thy will the habit of my heart.8
Is it the habit of our hearts?