Dear Conrad -- “I’ve heard people say, "If it’s God’s will, it’ll happen." But I’m not sure how to take that.

At first glance this statement seems obvious - but if understood incorrectly, we might find it leads us into thinking that is wrong and therefore dangerous.

Often people say, "If it’s God’s will, it’ll happen," when they are trying to figure out what God’s desire for their life is. Such as, "does God want me to go to get this one job over this other one? Well if it’s God’s will for me to get this one job, it’ll happen."

The statement in question assumes that everything that happens in this universe is the way that God wants it. While this seems good, and maybe obvious to some, we had better take a better look.

I’ll put it this way…

"If it’s God’s will, it’ll happen." What if I say this, "If it’s God’s will that I sin, it’ll happen.” So when I sin, it means God wanted it to happen. What we previously thought was obvious now seems terribly wrong. Now it looks like that God is either not in control of the universe or responsible for sin.

The problem here is that we are using one word for two different concepts. It’s like we’re using the word ‘apple’ while talking about both apples and oranges.

When we use the term "God’s Will" we either mean first ‘God’s active will’ (as in, "Let there be Light") or secondly ‘God’s passive will’ (what God prefers).

It was out of God’s active will that brought the universe into being.

But when we say, "God does not will that we sin", we can restate that to say, "God rather that we not sin." But we cannot restate the other sentence to say, "God would rather the light came into existence." We’re talking about two different things while using the same word - that’s where the confusion starts.

Just because there is a difference between in Active Will and Passive will - is not to say that God is sovereign with one and not the other. God sovereignly causes things to happen as in the case with "Let there be light", but also in the case of our sin, God sovereignly gave us the ability to make moral choices. He sovereignly declared both.

So while God ‘would rather’ we not sin, he sovereignly gave us the ability to make the choice. This is not to say that God is responsible for our sin either. Just because God gave us a choice doesn’t mean he makes us break his law. Just because the government makes the speed limit 55MPH doesn’t mean the government makes you break the law as well.

So by frivolously saying "If it’s God’s will, it’ll happen" and applying it universally with no bounds, without realizing it can lead to thinking few wrong things: Either God is un-sovereign, or God is responsible for evil; and also we can sit back, relax and let God do all the work, since "If it's God's Will, it'll happen," we don't have to do a thing.

So what should we then do?

We must understand how to understand God’s will (Active and Passive sense), and how that applies in our lives.

We should not expect that whatever happens is God’s active will since he gave actively gave us the ability to make choices. We should expect that God allows us to miss opportunities that we should have taken had we been more faithful in following his leading.

This should cause us to be more vigilant in seeking out his desire for our lives rather than complacently expecting God to have things fall in our laps.

"The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him." (LA 3:25)