Chapter 12: Making Tough Decisions
Summer before junior year story
What ministries to do? What ministries to let go?
What does God want me to do?
Embracing the seasons of waiting and uncertainty
Stone analogy
Knowing God's Will for Our Lives
Train of thought to Knowing God
The struggle during the season of waiting: The battle of control versus surrender
Work on the tasks ahead of you
Battle is not ours but God's (2 Chronicles 20)
Confession
Response
No power
No Knowledge
Position Yourselves
Stand still
See the salvation of the Lord
Trying to control the situation is not trusting that God will take care of things for you
Surrender to God is trusting in His promises and what He has done in the past
My type A personality
So you moved. You make a decision, but things aren't clear
Things don't go according to plan
Talk about decision to stay with Spiritual Life
In the height of doubt, it's hard to see God. You might not feel like trusting God. But remember faith is not wholly dependent on feeling. It is a balance between the emotional and the intellectual
Inner circle, firends that surround you to remind you of who God is and what He has done in your life already
Things still seem uncertain
There's a lot more unknown
Story: Light unto my feet
God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the chosen
Daniel and Hebrew youth stayed faithful, not knowing what was in store for them
Light in those days is not a flashlight
Tied in with the Inner Life chapters
Decision Making time
Costs and Benefits (Prayerfully)
Reach out to trusted counsel
Personal heart preparation
Jesus went alone on a mountainside to pray
Be open to other perspectives, you don't know everything
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Making Decisions without listening to God can have drastic consequences
David/Bathsheba
Abraham/Sarah
Israel with a king
Surrender our desires for His desires
Matthew 6:10 - Lord's prayer: your will be done
Luke 9:23 - Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me
Jesus at Gesthenmane
Character focus is primary
Conquering overthinking
Men are looking for better methods, God is looking for better man (EM Bounds)
To think like God to feel like God will help us to make decisions in God's will
Wherever your decision lands
Clearing the noise around us
Find out who God wants you to be more than what He wants you to do (tied with Knowing God)
If we are more focused on what to do rather than who to be, we won't have the character to face the tasks that God wants us to do
You can't control a problem more by overthinking. I'm not saying not to think. But at some point, you've done all that you can. Put the problem in the box and leave it in God's hands
Trust me, I suck at this too. Whirling through the multitude of possibilities that could happen. As my friend Sarah said, you're only falling into a rabbit hole
Move forward
We are the driver, God is the driver on the other side
You have the gas pedal. God doesn't force us to move
But if you start moving, God can steer us in another direction.
Dwelling in the thoughts of fear will only paralysis us. At some point, we must surrender and move forward.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to move in spite of fear.
Biblical examples of waiting
Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for God's promise for a son to be fulfilled
Jews waited 483 years for the Messiah
Noah
Hannah waited years for her own child
Women with the issue of blood waited for twelve years with no cure
Saul going into battle
God asks the ill-equipped to serve Him so they know that it was God who did all things through them. Chris Estay
You'll know its God - 2 Corinthians 4:7. We are but earthen vessels with God as a treasure
If you abide in me, and my word abides in you