When I was in college it was an exciting time. It seemed like most everything in my life was up in the air. I had way more questions than I had answers, like: Would I get married? Who would I marry? (I had some thoughts about that, but I really wanted to hear from God.) What kind of a husband would I be? Would we have children? How many children would we have? What kind of a father would I be? Where would I go after I graduated? What part of the country would I live in? What kind of ministry would I have? Would I be an associate pastor first, or go right into a senior pastor position? Would I serve on a church staff, or be a solo pastor? And, on a deeper, more fearful level: Would I be a success? Would I be able to provide for my wife and children? Would my family be disappointed in me? Would God be disappointed in me? Would I be disappointed in myself?

When I was in college it was an exciting time. It seemed like most everything in my life was up in the air. I had way more questions than I had answers, like: Would I get married? Who would I marry? (I had some thoughts about that, but I really wanted to hear from God.) What kind of a husband would I be? Would we have children? How many children would we have? What kind of a father would I be? Where would I go after I graduated? What part of the country would I live in? What kind of ministry would I have? Would I be an associate pastor first, or go right into a senior pastor position? Would I serve on a church staff, or be a solo pastor? And, on a deeper, more fearful level: Would I be a success? Would I be able to provide for my wife and children? Would my family be disappointed in me? Would God be disappointed in me? Would I be disappointed in myself? I’d spent my teenage years as a prodigal son living on the edges of “the far country.” My parents made me tow the line for the most part, but I drifted away from God. I was making my own decisions, planning my own life, and taking my own path. And it all ended up with my life in the ditch in a big way. I wrecked the most important relationships with the most important people in my life, wasted some really good opportunities, and started to become someone that nobody really wanted to be around. I mean it when I say that, without Jesus, nobody would like me. But God in His grace brought me into a time of crisis in my life. He let me become pretty miserable as a direct result of my own decisions. My misery was God’s mercy. Paul said that God’s kindness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). And when I was broken enough, I turned back to God. I knelt down in the dirtiest machine shop bathroom you ever saw, and cried my life back into God’s hands. (No, I didn’t touch the toilet. Are you nuts?) After that, God began to restore to me the years that the locust had eaten (Joel 2:25). Slowly, my relationships with the people I loved were restored: my parents, my grandparents, my brothers, my church. And the girl who had the good sense to break up with me, God brought back into my life, and in a few years, she became my wife! And we had two kids, a boy and a girl. I served for a short time on a church staff in another state, but then became a solo pastor, and since coming to Linton, a senior pastor with a small but wonderful staff. And we got to live in God’s country: Indiana! In the end, both my family and my wife’s family weren’t disappointed in me. (As for being disappointed in myself, that’s an ongoing discussion between the Lord Jesus and me.) All to say: I’ve tried the whole thing of being independent from God and making my own decisions. It didn’t work out so well. The prophet Jeremiah prayed, “I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23) Turns out, we really do need a shepherd. But God has committed Himself to be our Shepherd, if we will turn to Him, and be His people (Psalm 100:3). And He has promised to guide us. We can find this in many places in the Bible, but I love Psalm 48:14: “…this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.” An alternate rendering has it this way: “He will guide us beyond death.” In this life, through this life, and beyond this life, it’s still true: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1) So, all of this was all the more reason for me to really want to be sure that the decisions I made back in college were according to God’s will. For that matter, it’s all the more reason for me to want to make sure that the decisions I make now are according to God’s will. But: How do we know God’s will? That question was topmost in our minds back in those college days. Which made us really sit up and pay attention when one of our profs surprised us one day by saying, “Here’s how to know the will of God…” The professor’s name was Elmer Deal. To be honest, he wasn’t a great teacher. It was fairly easy to nod off in Brother Deal’s classes. But he taught a course on missions, because he had been a really good missionary. He started six or seven churches in Congo, Africa, until the government kicked out all non-nationals for a time. These churches wrote to him after he was forced to leave, and it was like they were writing to the Apostle Paul! He had all these photographs of him with those Congolese Christians, all smiling for the camera. Even though he wasn’t the most interesting teacher, we knew he was a godly man, and had been a missionary greatly used by God. So, when he started talking about how to know God’s will, suddenly everyone in the class woke up and began to take notes. Here’s what he told us: “First,” he said, “if it is something that the Bible prohibits, then it’s not God’s will. Don’t try to rationalize it. You don’t even have to pray about it. Just don’t do it.” “Second, consider your circumstances. Now, just because the circumstances line up for you to do something doesn’t mean you should do it. Circumstances line up for us to sin all the time. That’s called ‘temptation.’ But if God’s Word doesn’t prohibit it, and the circumstances are lining up for you to do something, then it might be worth considering.” “But there’s one last thing: your heart’s desire. Do you have a desire to do something? Is it something that God’s Word would permit, or even approve of? Are the circumstances such that you have an open door to do this thing? And is this something that, in your heart, you really want to do?” “If those three things line up—God’s Word, circumstances, and my heart’s desire—then I can usually be pretty sure that this is God’s will for my life.” Honestly, over the years I have read entire books about how to find God’s will for your life. But I have never come across better, briefer, or wiser advice than what veteran missionary Elmer Deal shared with our class that morning. I frantically scribbled it all down as fast as I could. But the truth is, it was seared into my brain immediately. I’ve remembered it ever since, and I’ve shared it with many other people. And now I share it with you. Soli Deo Gloria! Pastor David