by Kevin DeYoung
excerpted review by Tim Challies
To be honest, I don’t know that we really need another book—yet another book—on guidance and the will of God. Having said that, there is probably no genre of book I recommend more often than this simply because experience shows that many Christians, too many Christians, do not understand how God expects us to know his will and how we may expect him to guide us to those things that please him.
The author who seeks to add something to this genre is entering into a very crowded field and is going to need a unique angle. Kevin DeYoung takes on this challenge and succeeds admirably, crafting a short but powerful book that really packs a punch. His unique angle is reflected in the title: Just Do Something! “My goal,” he says, “is not as much to tell you how to hear God’s voice in making decisions as it is to hear God telling you to get off the long road to nowhere and finally make a decision, get a job, and perhaps, get married.” He fears that many Christians, because of their unbliblical understanding of knowing and doing the will of God, are wasting their lives doing nothing when they should just be doing, well, something! “I’d like us to consider that maybe we have difficulty discovering God's wonderful plan for our lives because, if the truth be told, He doesn’t really intend to tell us what it is. And maybe we’re wrong to expect Him to.”
The book has occasional spots of appropriate levity. Writing about a young man whose affection for a woman was not reciprocated because “the Holy Spirit told me no,” DeYoung writes, “Poor guy—he got rejected, not only by this sweet girl, but by the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity took a break from pointing people to Jesus to tell this girl not to date my roommate.” Pastoral throughout, DeYoung also covers the kinds of topics that people ask in relation to God’s will—issues related to work and wedlock. In a concluding chapter that certainly does not detract from the book even if it does not seem to add a whole lot, he pays tribute to his grandfather who has lived a long and productive life for God’s glory without ever concerning himself with discovering God’s hidden will.
In a brief foreword, Joshua Harris says that this is his new go-to book on the subject of God’s will and decision making. I am inclined to agree with him, at least for those who are looking for a kind of entry level book. [Garry] Friesen's Decision Making and the Will of God is still the most thorough and the one who lays the foundation, but this title is certainly much easier to read and much more likely to be read. I am quite convinced that any Christian who reads Just Do Something will benefit from it. I unreservedly recommend that you do just that.
You can pick up a copy of Just Do Something at Books By The Park.
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