As believers in Christ, we want to do God’s will, right? We want to figure out what He wants us to do and we genuinely want to do that, spending our lives in obedience to Him. Here, I summarize some practical advise on how to do that.

First off, I believe it is helpful for us to realize that most of the time, with most of our decisions, God does not care what we do. He does not care about 99% of the choices we make in our lives. He gives us the freedom to choose to live our lives however we feel is best for ourselves. — God does not care where I work as long as I work hard and I am a good witness for Him.

— God does not care where I live as long as I am a good neighbor.

— God does not care who I marry as long as I treat my spouse with love and respect and build our marriage and family on the foundation of Christ.

— God does not care how many kids I have as long as I raise them in the Church and help them to grow up to be men and women of God.

For the most part God does not care what I do with my life as long as I honor Him and give Him glory with the way I live.

My wife, Stephanie, and I met on eharmony.com. While I certainly believe that God used eharmony.com to bless us, I do not believe that God brought us together in some special and predestined way. All you classic romantics out there may not agree with this, but God did not design Stephanie and I to be together specifically. This may not sound all that romantic, but I think that it is incredibly romantic. I had met hundreds of women, maybe thousands of eligible young women, in the 35 years before I met Stephanie and I could have married and made it work with many of them. I chose to marry Stephanie. And Stephanie chose to marry me. We weren’t predestined to be together. God didn’t say “I created you to marry Stephanie Barclay. She is the one I have for you so marry her and be done with it.” – like I had no choice in the matter. I made a conscious and intentional decision to marry her over all the other millions of women in the world I might have married.

Whether it is the question of who we marry, what career we have, what city we live in, what church we attend, or any of the thousands of decisions we make about our lives, for the most part God doesn’t care. Not even about the big stuff.

But sometimes he does care, right? Sometimes there are specific directives, specific tasks that God gives us to do with which he expects us to be obedient. What do we do then? How do we then figure out what those are so we can be obedient? After all, God doesn’t typically speak directly to us in an audible voice. Sometimes he does, but for most of us this does not happen very often. We usually do not get direct instructions from God about specific tasks to accomplish. Here is some advice for how to determine exactly what God wants us to do so that we never miss it and disappoint God. This is very simple, but very helpful. I try to follow this advice myself as a general rule.

When ever an opportunity comes up in your life, SAY YES! It is that simple. No matter what it is, just say yes. Well, let me clarify a bit. Say yes to every legitimate opportunity. Obviously there are things that come across our paths that clearly go against what God would want from us. Illegal and sinful activities are not legitimate opportunities. We can say no to those right away. We don’t need to entertain the idea of dating a non-believer, because Jesus already said not to. We don’t need to pray about whether or not to make an investment in a shady or speculative business deal, because God already said not to.

Also, we have to use common sense. Our calendars can only fit so much in them. There are only 24 hours in each day and we can’t be two places at once. We also must remember to take our Sabbaths and make sure we are getting plenty of rest. We can’t go 24/7, non-stop.

If we follow those general rules we can say yes to every opportunity that comes our way and then trust that God will close the wrong doors and open the right doors. God is fully capable of taking away opportunities that do not line up with His plan for us. If we never take a step forward, saying yes to opportunities, but instead expect God to first tell us where to go, we may be stuck for a good long while. Instead, like a ship in the ocean, we are called to move forward, allowing God to steer us in the right direction.

It is also helpful to note that regardless of what decision we make in our lives, we cannot mess up God’s plan. If we truly and genuinely have a desire to do God’s will and we are doing our very best to honor God with all areas of our lives, then we cannot mess up His plan for us or for others and certainly not His overall plan for the world.

So let’s quit stressing out about finding and doing God’s will and just live by faith trusting that God will take care of the details. God is much more concerned about how we are living than about what we are accomplishing in our lives. God’s will for our lives is that we honor and glorify him with each and every day. God will make sure the building of His Kingdom is accomplished no matter what we do or don’t do. We get to be a part of it when we work to accomplish obedience and devotion in our personal faith journeys.

May God bless you all as you seek to follow Him wherever he might lead you.