How can I know God’s will for my life? It’s a question almost every believer asks. I met recently with seminary students seeking to answer this very question. How does God want me to use my seminary education to advance God’s mission in the world?
Frederick Brotherton (F. B.) Myer (1847-1929), who pastored several churches in England and later served as an itinerant evangelist, offered five practical suggestions for how to discern God’s will in real life in his book The Secret of Guidance: 1. Examine your motives. Be alert to the subtle working of self-interest to distort your quest to do God’s will. 2. Surrender your will. Jesus epitomized a surrendered life. Hand yourself completely over to God’s direction in your life. 3. Exercise your mind to know God’s will. God has given us remarkable cognitive powers to know his will through Scripture. 4. Be much in prayer. Put the matter squarely in God’s hands. F.B. writes, “When we want to know God’s will, there are three things that need to line up: the inward impulse, the Word of God and the trend of circumstances.” 5. Wait for the gradual unfolding of God’s plan in providence. If you do not know what to do, stand still. In the words of the prophet Habakkuk, “If the vision tarries, wait for it” (Hab. 2.3).
One more quote from F. B.: “God waits long enough to test patience of faith, but not a moment behind the extreme hour of need.”
You may be wrestling with a major decision right now. Walk back through F.B.’s five steps and utilize today’s prayer from his Exodus 3 devotion to relinquish your will to God’s gracious intention for your life: