Tim LaHaye - Finding the Will of God in a Crazy, Mixed-Up World

FINDING
THE WILL OF
GOD
IN A CRAZY,
MIXED-UP
WORLD

FINDING
THE WILL OF
GOD
IN A CRAZY,
MIXED-UP
WORLD

TIM LAHAYE

Life is so complex today! Im afraid Ill miss the will of God for my life.

My life is so mixed up and complicated that I dont know what to do!

T hese are typical cries Ive heard through the years. It seems to be increasingly difficult even for Gods people to make correct decisionsnot because God has changed but because life has radically changed. This world is infinitely more complex today than it was just a generation ago, and it will doubtless become even more so as the high-tech, social, and spiritual revolutions continue to gather momentum.

The following stories describe some of the people whove sought my help in finding Gods will. They represent the hundreds of people who come with complex problems and decisions, needing to find Gods direction for their difficult situations. Although the names used in these examples are fictitious, the stories themselves are very real. In fact, these stories may remind you of your own situation or that of a relative, friend, or neighbor.

As you read through these examples, ask yourself, How would I begin to look for Gods will in this situation? You will not find answers to that question in this chapter; my purpose here is to relate only the complex decisions these people faced. Later in the book, however, I will use each of these stories to illustrate biblical techniques that can help you make the difficult decisions that will mold the course of your life.

Joan, an attractive, thirty-nine-year-old woman, approached me for counseling, identifying herself as a widow with three sons. She told me that she had fallen in love with a Christian man who had two daughters similar in age to her boys. Their mother had died of cancer a little over two years before. Weve been seeing each other for the past year and a half and are very much in love, Joan explained. We have many things in common, hes a spiritual leader in our church, and all the children enjoy each other. They look forward to having new brothers and sisters.

As she spoke, I thought to myself, Whats your problem? The situation certainly sounds ideal to me. Then she revealed the difficulty. My husband, a major in the Air Force, had been a pilot throughout our marriage. But seven years ago he was shot down over Vietnam, and after four years of being listed as missing in action, the government declared him dead. For three years Ive carried this knowledge, not knowing for sure if hes alive or dead. What should I do? If I marry Bob, whom I now love, and Charles is found in a prison camp and released, I will have betrayed him, our sons, and our marriage vows. But if Charles really is dead and I refuse to marry Bob, Ill be destroying what happiness we could have together and the normal family life we could give to our children. Ive prayed diligently about this matter, but the Lord hasnt given me an answer. What should I do?

As you know, this bizarre situation is not an isolated case in this crazy, mixed-up world. Joan obviously needed supernatural wisdom. As Ill illustrate later, she received it.

A very distraught father of three children who attended our Christian school came in for counseling. With much effort Dick haltingly told his story. This forty-year-old Christian was very successful at two professions, his regular job and the Amway business hed started just four years earlier. In fact, the Amway business was doing so well that he felt he could soon quit his eight-to-five job to have more time with the family.

Then it came tumbling out. Dick had been unfaithful to his wife. Only once, I swear it! But its driving me crazy. I love my wife and am so guilty about what I did that Im having problems with male impotence for the first time in my life. I wasnt surprised, for Ive seen guilt make a virile twenty-five-year-old man impotent.

Dick had met an attractive, outgoing Christian woman at an Amway convention. They had spent too much time together making provision for the flesh, which the Bible warns us not to do. First they chatted, then they sat together, then they had coffee, soon they ate meals togetherand then it happened. It was difficult to tell who propositioned whom, but Dick spent one night in this happily married womans room.

We never plan to see or hear from each other again. Both of us have no intention of ruining our marriages and disgracing our families. We just got carried away and are ashamed of what weve done. We want to put this behind usbut I cant. It haunts me whenever I crawl into bed with my wife.

Ive confessed my sin to God, and I never want to let myself get so spiritually low that I do a thing like that againit just isnt worth it. But what should I do about my wife? If I tell her, Im afraid itll kill heror make her frigid! What do I do?

By using some of the principles outlined in this book, Dick also discovered Gods will for his situation.

Two brokenhearted parents and their obviously pregnant seventeen-year-old daughter came in for counseling. The daughter, Becky, wasnt intentionally loose with her morals. She was a Christian who had even witnessed to many of her friends in school, but during the past few months shed lost interest in spiritual things. She hadnt gone to church camp the previous summer and had attended church and youth activities only sporadically. Becky felt that sex with her popular, athletic boyfriend was necessary to maintain their relationship and bask in the sunlight of his popularity. Although our youth pastor had tried to intervene early in this relationship, Becky had rejected his attempts.

Now, of course, she was very repentant. Ive ruined my whole life, she cried. Her parents were determined to give Becky loving support as she confronted this difficult trauma. But the situation was further complicated by the fact that the boyfriendnot a Christianhad offered to marry Becky. What should they do? What was Gods will in this disastrous situation?

Fran, a woman who lived with an unrepentant, unfaithful husband, told me her story.

In 1954, I fell in love with a handsome, life-of-the-party non-Christian. When I agreed to go out with him, I had no idea I would end up being his wife. I also was certain I could change him after we married.

What a heartbreak trip I took! But for the grace of God I could be a very bitter, angry person.

In 1961, he went forward to receive Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade. He was very happy for a few years, and we were active in each church we attended. He was transferred frequently by his employer, but we always found a good Bible-believing church.

His job increasingly required him to travel. The more he was away from home, the more his old lifestyle haunted him. He began to frequent bars, and his infidelity returned. He rebelled against the church, no longer studied Scripture, and stopped seeing our Christian friends.

You may wonder why I stayed with him for as long as the marriage lasted. No one I knew ever divorced. No one in our families ever divorced; it wasnt even thought about as an action to take.