by Jared Hardin

June 30, 2025

Should I take this job? Should I marry this person? Should I retire at 65? Should we buy this house? Should we put mom or dad in the nursing home? Should we save up for a vacation next summer? Should I discipline the kid for that comment? 

Everyone faces questions like this throughout their lives. For Christians, these questions rightly become, "What is God's will in this situation?" But sometimes, the search for God's will can feel like chasing a rainbow. We know it's there, but it seems intangible and impossible to reach in a concrete sense. So we end up living as if God's will is something we can point to at a distance, but not something we can reach and apply in specific situations.

In one sense, there will always be a large amount of mystery in understanding God's will. Moses says, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God..." (Deut. 29:29). This is what theologians call God's "hidden" or "sovereign" will. But Moses doesn't stop there. The verse continues, "...but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law." Here is good news: there is a revealed will of God. God has told us what he wants for our lives. In fact, there is a verse in the Bible that says in plain language, "This is God's will..." so let's turn our attention to that verse:

• 1 Thessalonians 4:3 - "For this is God's will, your sanctification."
  

To be sanctified is to be "made holy". Paul continues to elaborate what he means: "...that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness."

God's will is that we are made holy. For a Christian, there is no exception to that principle. Citing Romans 8:28, we are quick to affirm that everything God does in our lives is for our good. That is a marvelous truth. But we must take that a step further, as Paul himself does. Immediately after Romans 8:28, Paul explains that Christians are predestined to be "conformed into the image of his Son" (Rom. 8:29). In other words, God is working through every situation in our life to make us more holy—more like Jesus. Whatever causes that to happen is what God wants.

He may sanctify us by teaching us how to be responsible with a large sum of money. He may sanctify us by taking away all our money.

He may sanctify us by giving us good health so that we can serve others for many years. He may sanctify us by taking away our health, making us trust him from a hospital bed.

Whatever makes us holier, that's what God wants. Always. Every time. No exceptions.

These things may not answer your specific question about marriage, parenting, or retirement, but they do give you a helpful lens to view life through. We can't approach every situation with the attitude of "What's easier?" or "What's most popular?" or "What fulfills my desires?" Rather, we have to face life with the question: "What tends toward my sanctification? What makes me more like Jesus? What lines up with God's revealed will?"

When we do that, we can move forward in faith, knowing that we are in the will of God, and that we can trust him with the details.