Jerry L. Sittser - The Will of God as a Way of Life: How to Make Every Decision with Peace and Confidence

the Will of God as a Way of Life

Also by Jerry Sittser

A Grace Disguised
When God Doesnt Answer Your Prayer

ZONDERVAN

the Will of God as a Way of Life
Copyright 2000, 2004 by Gerald L. Sittser

Formerly titled Discovering Gods Will

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 0-310-86476-3

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sittser, Gerald Lawson, 1950
The will of God as a way of life : how to make every decision with peace and confidence / by Gerald L. Sittser.Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 0-310-25963-3
1. GodWill. 2. Discernment (Christian theology) 3. Christian lifePresbyterian authors. I. Sittser, Gerald Lawson, 1950 Discovering Gods will. II. Title.
BV4509.5.S58 2004
248.4dc22

2004006068

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of Ann Spangler and Company, 1420 Pontiac Road S.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49506.

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To my children:
Catherine, David, and John,
who are so clearly the will of God for me

Contents

I have just finished rereading the book that you hold in your hands and are about (I hope) to read. It strikes me as even more remarkable today than when I first read it four years ago. The word that comes to mind that sets this book apart is companionablea companionable book.

Companionable because Jerry Sittser has written this book as an extended and nuanced conversation with friends on Christian pilgrimage. Those of us who find ourselves in this company, know that the phrase that is thematic to the book, will of God, may well be one of the murkiest set of words in the Christian vocabulary. We use the phrase a great deal, sometimes as nothing more than a clich drained of content, but at other times with genuine puzzlement that plunges us into a maelstrom of anxiety. For some it posts a dogmatic No Trespassing sign that shuts off either thinking or praying; for others, it scrawls a huge question mark over past and future and leaves us floundering in the holy now where we do all our actual living. Meanwhile, the conversation conducted in this book focuses and refocuses will of God in the context of the many and various ways in which all of us live out our lives of faith and obedience in our families and workplaces, in our crisis sufferings and our mundane routines. Gradually, we get it. We are with a companion who does not rush us, does not hector us, does not force his opinions upon us. What he does is write from within a community of highly textured relationships and voices and takes the actual, lived, circumstances of each of our lives seriouslywe are listening to a friend who has lived all that he writes, lived it honestly and believingly. There is no condescension here, he treats us with the immense dignity that inheres in will of God, but at the same time maintains a quiet but insistent conviction that we must quit speculating about the will of God and simply do it. Will of God is never a matter of conjecture, it directs a spotlight on believing obedience.

There is a sense that Dr. Sittser isnt saying anything new on the subject. Still, what he writes will strike many who read these pages as novel, for we live in a time when the air is full of careless comment and commentary on the will of God. Unfortunately too many of these comments have neither biblical rootage nor theological integrity. But the Bible could hardly be more clear on the matter and our best theologians have done their best to keep us attentive to the biblically obvious. Scripture carves the contours of the conversation that is this book and prayerful theologians, most of them unnamed, are unobtrusively in the background confirming the obvious. So while the writer is winsomely personal throughout, he is not idiosyncratic or exhibitionistic. An unassuming modesty sets the tone, an unpretentious, conversational style that never descends to banality. Companionable, indeed.

And companionable also because with this book in my hand, I know I have an ally I can trust in my own work. In the Christian community we are all our brothers (and sisters!) keepers in living the will of God. We live with family and friends and neighbors who ask a lot of questions about the will of God. I dont keep statistics on such matters, but over a lifetime I dare say that this ranks high on the list of most-asked questions by Christians. It is painful to have to say it, but there is an enormous amount of dishonesty and just plain silliness written these days in the cause of Christ. When people come to my attention whose voice is sane and honest in Christian witness, I join forces with them. Those of us who parent or teach or pastor or befriend in Jesus name, need all the help we can get. When the voice gets packaged into a book like this one on such a critical but confused subject as the will of God, I get as many people as I can in on the conversation.

A last word: when youve turned the last page and finished reading the book, give yourself a breakfive minutes or so should be enoughand then return to page one and start reading again, but more slowly this time. Conversations like these with a companion like this are rare. Savor. The Truth must dazzle gradually... (Emily Dickinson).

EUGENE H. PETERSON
Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology
Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.

Preface
to the New Edition

I was surprised and honored when an editor from Zondervan called to tell me that Zondervan was planning to release new editions of the first two books I had published with them. Before I could determine how much revision was required, I had to reread them first. After rereading the first book published with Zondervan, A Grace Disguised, I decided to let it remain as it was, for reasons I explain in the preface to the new edition of that book.

But I decided to revise my second book, Discovering Gods Will. I liked the theology of the book; if anything, I feel more strongly about it now than when I wrote it. But I did not like the writing. It was too long and too redundant, and it had too many illustrations. I tend to write fast and then let the draft sit for a while before returning to it with fresh eyes. I did not let Discovering Gods Will sit long enough. As I discovered when I reread it, the book needed one more revision. So I put myself to the task with energy and enthusiasm, grateful for the second chance. I moved sections around, cut about twenty-five pages, eliminated one chapter, and added another. It is a much better book now.