Summary
D.V. — Deo Volente, "God Willing"
The little Latin abbreviation D.V.—Deo volente, "God willing"—has long appeared at the close of letters, atop agendas, and at the bottom of formal invitations. It is a confession in two letters: whatever we plan, the outcome rests in the hand of God. Proverbs 16:9 puts it plainly: "The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps."
We are all planners to one degree or another. We schedule vacations, save for trips, work toward promotions, mark our calendars with appointments and milestones. Scripture does not condemn planning. Indeed, Proverbs 15:22 commends counsel and many advisors, while Proverbs 12:20 and Proverbs 3:29 warn against plans that intend harm. The question is not whether we plan, but what happens when D.V. runs into our plans—when sickness arrives the day before vacation, when the promotion goes to someone else, when a house repair swallows the savings, when a routine medical test comes back differently this year.
The Apostle Paul felt this himself. In 1 Corinthians 16 he laid out an itinerary through Macedonia to Corinth; trouble in the Corinthian church forced a change, and 2 Corinthians 1 records how some believers attacked his integrity over the altered plan. We are like those Corinthians more often than we care to admit. We prefer to write our plans in pen, not pencil. The old Adam and old Eve in us would rather have God submit to our agenda than humble ourselves under His. To say "D.V."—"by the grace of God," "if the Lord permits," "Lord willing"—is an act of humility that takes us off the throne and bows us before the One who actually sits there God Willing: "D. V." 8-31-25.
Some have wondered whether God really attends to such small details. Jerome, who translated the Scriptures into Latin, once wrote that it would be "an absurd detraction of the majesty of God" to say He knows every gnat that is born and dies, every flea, fly, and fish. But Scripture answers otherwise. Job 12:7-10 declares that in God's hand is "the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being." There is, as one teacher has put it, not one maverick molecule in the entire universe doing its own thing. God is omniscient and omnipotent; He governs all. And the God who knows the gnat certainly knows you.
The supreme proof is the cross. Ephesians 3:20 speaks of the One "able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine." Who could have imagined a love that sends the Son to bear the sin of the world, that washes us in the waters of Baptism with the promise "you are mine," that comes to us in Word and Sacrament, and that prepares an eternal place beyond what our minds can grasp? The God who directs your steps is the God who has already redeemed them.
So James 4:13-15 instructs us: instead of declaring what we will do tomorrow, "you ought to say, 'If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.'" Hebrews 6:3 echoes the same: "we will do this if God permits." D.V. frees us. It frees us from the exhausting illusion that we are in charge. It frees us to trust the steps He has allowed, even when the path makes no sense, because the One directing them is the One who loved us all the way to Calvary. Plan, yes—but plan in pencil, and sign every page, D.V.
Video citations
- God Willing: "D. V." 8-31-25 — Would you open your Bibles, please, with me, to Proverbs 16th chapter. Proverbs 16, if you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that in the Old Testament page 561 for our…