"Just Do Something"

When you think of discerning God’s will, what initially comes to your mind? Probably if you are like me, that is growing up in the Christian culture you will think of things like “ open or closed doors” , a peace or mind, fleece, known or unknown, or difficult or easy. Well I would have to be honest and say that four years ago I was really struggling in the area of knowing or discerning God’s will for my life. At that time God used some of my Bible classes at New Tribes to open my mind to some new ways of looking at God’s will. The reality is that at the time I was really struggling thinking about a future career and marriage. ( of course the two big ones) Well it has been a journey and one that has gone up and down. The best part of it is looking back over the last few years I can rejoice to see how God has been growing me in my understanding and application of His Word and Will. To quote a good friend and mentor of mine “ I wish I could write a book but I am not smart enough…. I enjoy reading books written by guys who are way smarter than me but who agree with my theology of God.” I mention this because over this last year I have been thinking a lot about Christians and their decisions in dating, courting, marriage, career, singleness…. Naturally I find myself here, for I am in my late twenties and single. With all of this thinking and reading on the topic I have found the important need to develop a theology of relationships. ( for lake of better terminology, the pursuit of marriage) What does the Bible have to say about this?
Well these thoughts above come to me right now for I just finished reading the book by Deyoung. It is so refreshing to read a book on the topic of decision making and to find it stick so closely to the fundamental truth of scripture. It is also nice to read an author who agrees with me  . ( see above) The truth is that DeYoung did a great job of taking common practices and beliefs and putting them up against the filter of scripture. He then responds with a biblical centric view of decision making and the will of God. He lays out what he calls in the book the “way of wisdom.” This is to say that God has given us already everything that we need to make wise decisions, God’s word, prayer, and fellow believers. This book of course deals with decision making in general but I would like to look at it in relation to marriage. “ There is nothing wrong with being single. It can be a gift from the Lord and a gift to the church. But when there is an overabundance of Christian singles who want to be married, this is a problem. And it’s a problem I put squarely at the feet of the young men whose immaturity , passivity, and indecision are pushing their hormones to the limits of self-control, delaying the growing process and forcing countless numbers of young women to spend lots of time and money pursuing a career ( which is not necessarily wrong) when they would rather be getting married and having children. Men, if you want to be married, find a godly gal, treat her right, talk to her parents, pop the question, tie the knot, and start making babies.” P. 108
This is where I stand on this, I believe that far to many Christian men( myself included)are sinning in the area of not being responsible in their pursuit of marriage. I believe that God has created us to be married and so if you are single man, other than for the sake of ministry, I believe to not be pursuing marriage is to sin. That seems harsh I am sure and it is convicting to me, but when I look at it we have made life so much more complicated. We as men pursue our careers, hobbies, and our entertainment more than we pursue being married. I think that pride, unbelief, selfishness, and lazyness are of a few of the fundamental factors in this problem. We need men who are going to stand up and go against the flow of our culture including that of our Christian subculture. Men who will instead of asking the question of is this the right woman for me, will ask the question am I the godly man I should be. Men we need to step up and be the spiritually leaders, that means in relationships too. I believe that if we were to understand what God’s will for our lives is then it would help in all areas of decision making. Quite focusing on all of the temporal decisions and instead focus on seeking the kingdom of God. For the will of God is your sanctification. ( I Thess. 4:3) If we are truly focusing on this then all of the rest of the decisions in life will naturally fall into place. So men will you join me in taking the head knowledge and putting it into action.” Let us be active in the present, grateful for the past, and hopeful for the future.” P.120
“ Be holy like Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God” p. 62
Thoughts and quotes come from

“ Just Do Something” by Kevin DeYoung – This was an excellent book and I highly recommend it.