This is great news my friend! I do not know about you, but I used to fret wondering if I was truly doing God’s will or not. I thought I needed an audible word or some miraculous sign from him in order to confirm the direction I should take. The sufficiency of scripture, however, means that we do not need to look for these signs, but only to scripture. The scripture informs us not only about what are right and wrong actions, but also about which motives and attitudes we should have. This then, is how we are to know the will of God. If it is not immoral, according to the scriptures, and our hearts are truly seeking first the kingdom of God then we know we are doing God’s will. What’s more, informing us of our real motivation is the work of scripture as the author of Hebrews states, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart,” (Heb. 4:12). So it is only through reading His word that we can know if our hearts are truly pure and blameless, set on the things above. Confidence and peace about the will of God comes from immersing yourself in scripture daily.
The sufficiency of scripture means that we have more freedom than, perhaps, we ever realized. We have freedom to choose between which job we should take, who we should marry, where we will live, and even what we are going to eat for lunch! The point is to simply do it all for the glory of God. It also means, however, that we should not be seeking divine writing in the sky or extra-biblical revelations. If God’s word is sufficient these things are an unnecessary waste of our time. As Justin Peters says, “Want to hear God speak to you? Read your bible. Want to hear God speak audibly? Read it out loud.”
If you want to learn about this topic I recommend the following sources.
· Sermon by John MacArthur
· Blog Post by John Piper
· Blog Post by Carl Trueman