You've heard it all before. You want to ask a girl out, but you don't know whether God wants you to ask that girl out. A friend wants to spend his summer on a mission trip, but after praying to know God's will in the situation he has received no clear response, so he lets the deadline for application pass. Another friend doesn't know whether God would have him go to university or Bible college. Conventional Christian wisdom says that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life; the secret to the victorious Christian life, you think, is discovering what God's ideal is for you and following it.
Think again.
At least, that is the message of Garry Friesen's Decision Making and the Will of God. This wonderf ul book is a critique of what Friesen calls the "traditional" view of decision making: that God has an "individual will" for each life, a sort of agenda. To be within the will of God is to discover (through, prayer, inner peace, seeking mature counsel, laying out "fleeces," and so forth) what that agenda is, and stick to it. Missing out on God's agenda isn't necessarily living in sin, but it is settling for God's second best.
Friesen points out many of the serious deficiencies in this model. First, it is not to be found in the Bible. The proof-texts given by traditional-view proponents to defend God's individual will are often better interpreted as referring to God's moral will - that is, right and wrong. While the traditional view is stressed for the "biggie" decisions, such as marriage or vocation, it is ignored for the regular decisions we make every day, such as what to eat or wear. When faced with otherwise equal choices, the traditional view insists only one of them is God's will, causing indecision. Since subjective impressions are self-justifying, there is no basis for disputing an immature believer's impression of God's will for his life, even if that decision seems foolhardy. And subjective impressions are just that, subjective - the traditional view cannot allow for conflicting impressions amongst equally sincere believers.
Instead, Friesen provides an alternative model for decision making that he calls "the way of wisdom." Truly, however, this is only an "alternative" because the "traditional" view is taken for granted. The way of wisdom goes like this: Apart from the circumstances of any individual decisions, all the tools needed to make those decisions are to be found in the Scriptures, which reflect the moral will of God. The Bible encourages believers to pursue certain values and attitudes, and to avoid others. Beyond these regulations, choices may be freely made. God does not micro-manage the life-paths of each believer, but like our earthly fathers do, he expects his children to mature and to learn to make wise decisions for themselves. The Bible admonishes its readers to seek not God's individual will, but the wisdom to make good decisions. Consequently the apostles rarely made any decision based on supernatural revelation or subjective "leading"; rather, they decided based on the good, wisdom, expediency, or available opportunities.
In one amusing section, Friesen points out how the "fleeces" we set out to help make God's will known are really wisdom in disguise! This part of the book hit home because I had been using exactly this sort of method not long before to decide whether I should ask out a certain girl or not! I do not doubt that Providence played some part in the decision, but Friesen helped me to see my "fleece" for what it really was. Rather than seek an unusual or miraculous sign as confirmation of God's will, I had simply become more observant about the circumstances and drawn a logical conclusion from what I observed. When I read the book for the first time a week later, I saw myself in it. (While I have changed my attitude about the means I used to make this decision, I have no regrets about the choice I did make - to keep silent.)
The final section of the book is a practical application of the way of wisdom. Friesen covers all the "biggies": marriage, ministry, missions, and vocation. In each case he provides the Biblical passages that guide these decisions. For example, 1 Corinthians 7 would regulate whether to marry, why one should or should not marry, and whom one may or may not marry. Proverbs 31 outlines the qualities of an excellent wife. Beyond these guidelines (and a few others), however, the Bible says nothing; Within these guidelines, the believer has the freedom to do what he wishes based on wisdom. The well thought-out, final few chapters on decision making as it pertains to Christian liberty and our relationships with other believers are an added bonus.
Decision Making and the Will of God is a rarity, a truly excellent and thoughtful book on a difficult subject. Garry Friesen engages the traditional view directly, solidly, and Biblically without being needlessly confrontational. Rather than merely finding fault, he presents a comprehensive, sound alternative and demonstrates its practicality. Additionally, the book, though scholarly, is very accessible without being glib. Finally, I tend to judge the excellence of a book by the time it takes me to get through it, and this is only the fourth non-fiction work I have ever read through in a single sitting - at 400+ pages, no easy feat!
Dr. Friesen has done Christendom a service with this book. While many decisions are not easy ones to make, the frustration and indecision often felt when God appears to be silent doesn't need to happen. Pray for wisdom (James 1:5), which God generously grants to those who ask for it without doubting.
