11/16/2023 – A New Potential Book Study: “Just Do Something – A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will”. Kevin DeYoung. / Session 2 of 8 – Chapter Three: “Directionally Challenged”
I will summarize and/or paraphrase key points in chapter three. If I have any interest in eight group discussions, I will post questions ahead of time. I have added the study guide section, with questions, for this chapter. If we go on from here, I will post session 1 of 8 on Thursday, December 7th. If you need a logon to the blog – email me at semikkah7@proton mail.com. We will all comment from the original post.
I have listed the chapter and the group session titles at the bottom. This book is only 122 pages long, copyright 2008, ISBN reference # 978-0-8024-1159-4. Who is Kevin DeYoung?
https://clearlyreformed.org/about/
Here is a summary paraphrase of the six page chapter:
“Why are so many Christians desperate to find out God’s plan for their lives?.. Why do millions of Americans in this country spend buckets of time and energy waiting for the will of God to be revealed? And why do we fret about the will of God like it’s some nuclear warhead pointing at our future happiness?
Let me suggest five reasons:
WE WANT TO PLEASE GOD
“… These men and women love the Lord. They aren’t trying to be difficult. They believe God has a path picked out for them, and they don’t want to miss it and let Him down. If the Lord thinks we should move to Nashville, we don’t want to wind up in Fargo… We want to ;do what God wants. That’s good. But as I’ve already explained and will flesh out in coming chapters, this is not how the will of God works. We may have the best of intentions in trying to discern God’s will, but we should really stop putting ourselves through the misery of overspiritualizing every decision. Our misdirected piety makes following God more mysterious than it was meant to be.”
SOME OF US ARE TIMID
“The second reason some of us seek God’s will of direction is because we are, by nature, very timid... Some Christians need encouragement to think before they act. Others need encouragement act after they think… They refuse to make a decision without all the facts and an almost complete assurance that everything will turn out fine… These may be the sort of Christians Paul had in mind when he told the Thessalonians to ‘admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thessalonians 5:14).”
WE WANT PERFECT FULFILLMENT
“The third reason we seek God’s will for direction is we are searching for perfect fulfillment in life. Many of us have had it so good that we have started looking for heaven on earth. We have lost any sort of pilgrim attitude. It’s all a matter of perspective. If you think that God has promised this world will be a five-star hotel, you will be miserable has you live through the normal struggles of life. But if you remember that God promised we would be pilgrims and this world may feel like a desert or even a prison, you might find your life surprisingly happy…
The more my grandpa and I talked, the more I realized the will of God beyond trying to obey His moral will was an unfamiliar concept to him. ‘You just do things’ seemed to be my grandpa’s sentiment, and as you’re doing them and walking with the Lord, you don’t spend oodles of time trying to figure out if you like what you are doing…”
WE HAVE TOO MANY CHOICES
“Of the five reasons for our obsession with finding God’s will, this may be the most crucial: We have too many choices. I’m convinced that previous generations did not struggle like we do trying to discover God’s will because they didn’t have as many choices. In many ways, our preoccupation with the will of God is a Western, middle-class phenomenon of the last fifty years. People living on a dollar a day just don’t have that many choices to make…
In some countries, people suffer from too few choices. In America, we have too many… We think choice makes us happy, but there comes a point (and most of us are well past it) where we would actually be better off with fewer choices…”
WE ARE COWARDS
“The final reason we want to know the will of God is because we are cowardly. It’s true. Sometimes when we pray to know the will of God, we are praying a coward’s prayer: ‘Lord, tell me what to do so nothing bad will happen to me and I won’t have to face danger or the unknown.’ We want to know everything is going to be fine for us or for those we love. But that’s not how God spoke to Esther. As a Jewish woman who won an unusual beauty contest to become Xerxes’ queen (see Esther 2: 2-17), Esther would learn that God’s plans can include risk — and an opportunity to show courage…
Esther was more man than most men I know, myself included. Many of us — men and women — are extremely passive and cowardly. We don’t take risks for God because we are obsessed with safety, security, and most of all, with the future. That’s why most of our prayers fall into one of two categories. Either we ask that everything would be fine or we ask to know that everything will be fine…
Obsessing over the future is not how God wants us to live, because showing us the future is not God’s way. His way is to speak to us in the Scriptures and transform us by the renewing of our minds. His way is not a crystal ball. His way is wisdom. We should stop looking for God to reveal the future to us and remove all risk from our lives. We should start looking to God — His character and His promises — and thereby have confidence to take risks for His name’s sake.
God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He has planned out and works out every detail of our lives — the joyous days and the difficult — all for our good (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Because we have confidence in God’s will of decree, we can radically commit ourselves to His will of desire, without fretting over a hidden wall of direction.
In other words, God doesn’t take risks, so we can…”
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STUDY GUIDE / GROUP DISCUSSION
KEY SCRIPTURE
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be confirmed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8: 28-29)
THINK ABOUT IT
- “Having faith doesn’t guarantee your life — or the lives of those around you — will be all candy canes and lollipops” (page 28). What is wrong with thinking that God’s will leads to perfect fulfillment in our lives? If we can’t expect total fulfillment, what can/should we expect?
- Read Esther 4, the entire account of Mordecai’s mourning and petition to Queen Esther, his cousin, over the impending judgment against their people. Knowing she about to risk death in appearing before the king (v. 16), Esther asked Mordecai for special assistance. How can fasting and other people’s prayers help us in making decisions?
- Esther’s decision reminds us that doing the right thing is risky. Why does God tell us at times to take risks when the outcome is unclear?
TALK ABOUT IT
- Why did you buy this book (or take this class)? Discuss any that apply:
- I want to learn how to please God.
- I’m timid / cautious.
- I want perfect fulfillment in life.
- I’m confused by choices.
- I’m a coward.
- *Jimmy insert: I needed a guilt trip.
2. What are the advantages to bring cautious in making decisions? How can someone recognize when he or she is overcautious, even timid? Discuss attitudes and actions that can help cautious people to move toward a point of decision.
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Thoughts? Reflections?
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Finally, here are the chapter and session titles for this book:
Session 1: Chapter 1: The Long Road to Nowhere / Chapter 2: The Will of God in Christians.
Session 2: Posted here – Chapter 3: Directionally Challenged.
Session 3: Chapter 4: Our Magic 8-ball God
Session 4: Chapter 5: A Better Way?
Session 5: Chapter 6: Ordinary Guidance and Supernatural Surprises.
Session 6: Chapter 7: Tools of the Trade
Session 7: Chapter 8: The Way of Wisdom
Session 8: Chapter 9: Work, Wedlock, and God’s Will / Chapter 10: The End of the Matter
Soli Deo Gloria!
Your brother in Christ,
Jimmy