You have probably heard those words before. You’re driving along and suddenly realize that you just missed your turn. Your anxiety is checked, however, by a female voice with a calming, pleasant British accent who announces that there is nothing to fear, for in her omniscience (assuming you remembered to update the maps!) she will soon have you back on track.
Ahhhh…the wonders of modern technology!
And so, armed with such technology, the directionally-challenged among us bravely venture out onto the highways and byways of the world, confident that in spite of any predispositions to miss turns or get off on wrong exits, that little cartoonish vehicle on the screen will eventually get us to where we are supposed to be.
But what about our journey in this thing called life? Is a GPS device in our car in any way analogous to how God accomplishes His plan for our lives? To put it another way, is it possible to miss a turn that God intended for us to take, either by our own misstep or through no fault of our own, and in doing so force God to recalculate our route in order to get us back on track? Is it possible that we could even get so off-track that our original destination is no longer available?
To try and answer the question, we must look at how the Bible describes God’s will? Sometimes, the Bible speaks of God's prescriptive will. All of God’s commands fall under His prescriptive will. In this sense, we should think of every evil or sinful act as being contrary to the will of God. For instance, when God says that Christians should abstain from sexual immorality, “for this is the will of God” (1 Thess.4:3), He is referencing His prescriptive will. Christians can choose to deviate from God's prescriptive will, a choice which will require corrective measure from God. So in this sense, yes, a Christian can get off-track from God's purpose for their life.
However, Scripture also speaks of another will of God, a sovereign will by which God is accomplishing His plan and purpose for all of history and the people and events that are a part of that history. Sometimes the details of this plan are not revealed, and how God accomplishes His sovereign will is in large part a mystery to us, but the Bible makes plain that such a will exists, and that violations of His prescriptive will in no way detour the execution of this sovereign will (Joseph, Esther, Job and Jesus Himself are just a few of many examples.) Originated in eternity past, God's sovereign will is being accomplished and will be accomplished perfectly, without deviation, in all its details.
It is this mysterious, secret, sovereign will of God that is in view in Ecclesiastes 3:1, where Solomon encourages the people of God to view all of life as the unfolding of His plan and purposes when he writes, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” From womb to tomb, as it were, Solomon unapologetically declares that God has a particular purpose for everything and every person. From birth to death and everything in between, through all and over all stands God’s sovereign will. Nothing happens by accident. Everything has a purpose. Even our own sins fall under this umbrella of the sovereign will of God. Furthermore—and this is hard—sometimes God allows difficult things that are violations of His prescriptive will to occur in our lives as part of His sovereign will. This is a mystery to be sure, but faith can enable us to bear this theological tension and even cling to it and draw comfort from it, despite the mystery.
The Apostle Paul writes in a similar vein in Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” We can be assured that God’s purposes are not thwarted by missteps. Nor is He surprised by these missteps, forced to recalculate our route in order to get us where He wants us to be. Rather, every event in our lives, the good and the bad, take place by His permission and are part of His sovereign and good will.
So…is God’s will like a Garmin? Well, it depends. If we are talking about His prescriptive will, then we can be assured that, though we will deviate at times from the path, He can correct our course if we will admit our error. But if we are talking about his sovereign will, His purpose and plan for history of which we are a part, well, then we never really deviated at all. Ultimately, you and I are exactly where God wants us, no matter what circumstances brought us to this moment. And if we are wise, we will seek to see those circumstances from God’s point of view, for we can be assured that, in spite of the pain associated with them, they are being used by God in our lives to fulfill His good and perfect plan.
