DIVINE DIRECTION (CRAIG GROESCHEL)

"We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps" (Proverbs 16:9 NLT). 

INTRODUCTION: SMALL CHOICES

Life is the sum of all your choices—Albert Camus

1. Smaller choices can also have big effects. Our lives are constantly spilling into the lives of others, and theirs into ours. Like falling dominos, even our smallest decisions sometimes cascade into consequences we never could have seen coming. 

2. What is always true is that the decisions we make today determine the stories we tell about our lives tomorrow. Every day, all day, we make one small choice after another. And those choices just keep accumulating, each one woven into the rest, forming the tapestry that is our life story.

“Direction, not intention, determines destination” (Andy Stanley). 

The truth is you are one decision away from changing your life forever. Your best decision ever is the one you’re about to make. Right now.

3. If you feel empty, like you’re always looking for something more, then you’re standing at the crossroads of a divine direction. If you have tons of “friends,” “followers,” and “likes,” but you still feel a raw longing, you know something needs to change. Maybe that’s exactly what God wants for you. If you’ll open your heart, I believe God will gently lead you, step by step, decision by decision, perhaps not to the life you’ve always wanted but to the life that He’s always wanted for you.

He loves you so much that He lets you choose.

4. When you start making one divine decision after another, you’ll see your story emerge, the one that God wants to tell through you. And with His help, you’ll use the powerful freedom He’s given you to transform your life.

5. If you don’t like the way your life is going, the good news is that God can get things working together for your good. (See Rome 8:28.) He’s committed to you, and He wants so much more for you than you’re probably settling for now. You can’t change your past, but God can help you rewrite your story and change your future.

God is focused not on your happiness but on your pursuit of Jesus, which satisfies your soul like nothing else. 

ONE: START

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending—Maria Robinson

1. No matter how you describe your story, there’s good news. Your story is not over. It’s not too late to change the story that you’ll tell one day. Regardless of what you’ve done (or haven’t done), your future is still unwritten. You have more chapters to write, more victories to win, more friends to meet, more of a difference to make, more of God’s goodness to experience. Even though you may not like the plot so far, with God’s help, you can transform your story into one you’re not ashamed to share. You can start something new.

It’s not too late to change the story that you’ll tell one day. You can start something new. No matter how desperate, uncertain, afraid, or stuck you may feel right now, your story isn’t over.

2. You can’t travel back in time and start your life over. But there is something you can do, and you can do it today: you can start a new discipline that will make for a new and better ending to your story. Any day you choose, you can start something new and allow God (the finisher of your faith) to help you complete what He called you to start.

3. We’re going to start small. But don’t be discouraged. Most great ministries start small. Most great businesses had humble beginnings. Even the best marriages usually start with a simple hello. In the Bible, Zechariah says, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin” (Zech. 4:10 NLT).

4. Daniel wasn’t an overnight success. He was able to stand tall because he’d faithfully knelt before the one true king. The small, daily discipline of prayer equipped him to face the big, scary test of those hungry lions, both the peers who were attempting to destroy him as well as the big cats in the arena. Starting something small and then faithfully continuing it made his story so rich that it’s been told for thousands of years now, and still counting.

5. A small decision today could even change your near future. It doesn’t always take a long time to see big differences in your life. What story do you believe God wants you to tell five or ten years from now? What does God want you to want? Jot down your thoughts about what you believe God wants for your future. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to commit to what you write just yet. Just capture on paper the thoughts that come to mind.

God will finish it, but you have to start it. 

TWO: STOP

Stop. Revive. Survive—Melina Marchetta

1. Every choice you make, both big and small, affects aspects of your life. You either learn to take responsibility for your actions, or you learn to make excuses and find scapegoats. Even when things happen that are beyond your control, even when—no, especially when—you make mistakes, you still choose how you respond. Wisdom is God’s navigational tool for helping us make decisions about the life we want to live. The tricky part is stopping for a moment and actually using it before we make the wrong decision.

God may call you to abort, abandon, or abolish something, to stop one thing that helps you live the story He wants you to tell.

2. What’s it going to cost you if you don’t slow down? One hidden cost might be that you can’t know what you’re missing if you continue at your current pace. You’ve grown so accustomed to your habits, lifestyle, and busyness that you’ve forgotten what it means to truly relax, to be still before God.

3. External habits are behaviors that can be observed from the outside: eating unhealthy things, losing your temper and going off on people you love, activities or behaviors that harm yourself or others. Even more dangerous than the external behaviors is our internal sin nature. That’s what gets us into trouble most often. Selfishness, greed, pride, lust. A bad attitude, a critical spirit. Even worrying and negative self-talk. Whatever is going on internally that’s not good, you need to stop it.

4. Let’s consider a few common things people struggle with to help you think through which things you might need to stop:

• Social media

Look up from that screen! You might very likely find a few faces right there in the room with you, people who love you, who are desperate for you to connect with them.

• The need for control

If you can stop judging everything, you just might be surprised at how much more you start enjoying your life and the people in it.

• Unhealthy habits

Pick one thing you know you need to stop doing in order to change your story’s direction. 

The writer to the Hebrews said, “Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:1–2 NASB).

5. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Give Him the opportunity to write your story. Don’t be embarrassed to ask Him for help. He wants to perfect your faith. This isn’t behavior modification; anyone can do that. What you need is spiritual transformation. You need to get clear of the clutter so you can hear from God. Then you need to listen. He’ll show you the things that are hindering your story.

THREE: STAY

I have more care to stay than will to go—William Shakespeare

1. There are plenty of times when you should just walk away. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to allow this chapter of your life to end so you can start a new one. Before you decide, you really need to ask yourself, “Am I choosing to give up because it’s the right thing, or just because it seems like leaving would be easier?” 

It may be that the best and most rewarding decision you can make is to stay the course, even when it would be so much simpler to turn and walk away.

2. When Ruth tells Naomi she’s going to stay with her, it’s serious; she’s committing to this life. She’s saying, “We’re family, and even though I know it’s going to be hard, family sticks together”. But the next thing she says is actually much more powerful to me. She says, “I’m not going back to the god I had before, I’m choosing your God, Naomi, the one true God. I’m not just committing to you; I’m committing to Him”.

3. Everything in Ruth’s life changed. Why? Because she decided to stay when it would have been easier to go. It’s also important for us to recognize that Ruth didn’t stay because she thought there might be something in it for her. She wasn’t just hoping God would somehow bless her. No, she stayed because she believed it was right, and that’s why God blessed her.

You are not a quitter. You’re a finisher.

4. Your story might be that you decided to stay with God. You chose to accept that God will never leave you nor forsake you, so you stayed. You chose to trust Him and keep talking to Him. “I don’t understand this, God. It doesn’t make sense to me. But I also know I’m not You. I know Your ways are higher than my ways. I choose to believe in You even during those times when I can’t feel Your presence. Still I know You’re there”.

Sometimes the greatest act of faith is faithfulness, staying where you’re planted.

“Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up”(Gal. 6:9 ESV).

If you are tempted to walk away, make sure to seek God, because you never know what He might do if you have the courage to stay.

CHAPTER 4: GO

Do not go were the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail—RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

It’s only hard for us. It’s easy for God. Besides, He likes us doing hard things. Makes us keep trusting Him, keep talking to Him, all the time, every day. And that’s what we like too. Remember?”

1. Each time I was willing to take a risk, to go somewhere and do something unfamiliar, scary, or uncertain, I learned to trust God more and more. Sometimes the best decision you can make is to go, even when it would be easier just to stay where you are.

God gave Abram a very simple, direct command: walk away from everything you’ve ever known. “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you”(Gen. 12:1 NIV 1984).

2. It may seem obvious, but to go somewhere else, you have to leave where you are. To go somewhere else, you have to leave what’s known, what’s comfortable, what’s predictable, and what’s easy. To step toward your destiny, you might have to step away from your security.

We’re not changed by the promises we make to God; we’re changed by believing the promises God makes to us.

3. There’s going to come a chapter in your life when you sense there’s something new, something different that God wants you to do. You’ll know there’s somewhere you’re supposed to go, but you’ll have to leave where you are to get there. But if you don’t have the faith to go, if you let your fear keep you where you are, you won’t know the blessings you’re missing.

If you go, you get to find out what happens. But if you don’t, you’ll never know what might have been. The difference is that dull, nagging feeling most people call regret.

When you stand boldly for Jesus, living with criticism is part of the job description.

4. If God is calling you to go, you’re going to have to leave where you are. And you sure don’t want to miss out on what He’s doing. Years from now, you could be looking back on this time in your life and realize, “That was the day my story changed. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I decided it was what God wanted, and now I’m a part of this great community of believers. I had no idea how different our lives would be”.

Take that step of faith. Go, even when it would be easier to do nothing. Venture where God is calling you despite what others say. Trust Him with the details.

5. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him”(Heb. 11:6). You want to please God. You believe He exists. You’ve been seeking Him. You’ve asked for His direction. Now you need to apply faith! Take that step, make a change, move outside your comfort zone, risk failing and starting over, but exercise faith in the God who loves you so much He gave His Son for you.

6. Maybe you’re thinking, I just don’t think I have that kind of faith. I for sure don’t have the faith to finish something like what He’s calling me to. Then I have great news for you: you don’t have to have the faith to finish; you only have to have enough faith to start. You need only enough faith for one step: that very first one.

7. Take the first step of faith. Let God do the rest. He wants to anyway. This isn’t about you. It’s about Him. He’s the one telling the story. He’s the author. He’s the perfecter of your faith. Who knows where He’ll take your story if only you’ll let Him. Here’s how you can find out: take that first step, then just keep going. One day, years from now, you’ll look back on your life and see the whole story. What’s it going to be?

FIVE: SERVE

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others—GANDHI

1.  If you’re walking closely with God, He will guard your steps and guide you. Even if you stumble into a ditch, take a detour, or get stuck, He can redeem your bad decisions with positive outcomes. Our God is that good. Your faith-filled, God-honoring decisions have three other things in common. When you’re starting a new pursuit, stopping a bad habit, staying in the midst of a storm, or taking a step of faith, you will discover that God is also asking you to:

• serve others,

• connect with community,

• and trust Him with the outcome.

He said, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). 

One of the quickest ways to forget about God is to be consumed with self. We are called not to celebrate, promote, or advance ourselves but to deny ourselves. 

“My food,” He said, “is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work” (John 4:34). 

When all of culture says, “Fill yourself,” God tells us to fill others. God didn’t create us to be takers. He created us to be givers.

2. When we give our lives, that’s when we find them. When we serve others, we’re serving God. We are more blessed when we give than when we receive. When we stop obsessing over what we want, only then can we find what we need. And that kind of spiritual food, that spiritual nourishment, is far better than any burger, even if you can have it your way.

3. Because of what Jesus did for me, my life really belongs to Him. So to really find meaning and to glorify God in all things, everything had to become more about God and others and less about me. Even when it didn’t make sense or feel fair to me. Even when I could find loopholes. 

“The greatest among you will be your servant” (Matt. 23:11). 

My soul’s nourishment came from doing God’s will, and these were the blessings I wanted to share for the rest of my life. 

We are not made to be spiritual consumers. God has called us to be spiritual contributors. The church does not exist for us. We are the church, and we exist for the world.

4. We don’t go to church; we are the church. And since we are the church, God wants to use us to serve Him. He wants us to use our gifts to strengthen His body. Paul tells the Roman Christians, “In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well” (Rom. 12:6 NLT). When you think about it, surely there are certain things that just naturally come easy to you. You’re wired to do things that other people can’t do, and they often admire that you can do those things.

Paul listed seven different gifts: “So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly” (Rom. 12:6–8 NLT).

5. Not only is God calling us to serve in His church, He’s also calling us to serve as His church. Yes, we have the honor of serving other believers inside the church, strengthening them to do the work and will of God. But our most important ministry doesn’t happen inside God’s church. It happens as we are the church, shining His light into a dark world desperate for His goodness. Our flame never diminishes when we light the fire of God’s love in someone else’s life; it only shines brighter. And when we decide that we want to be who God made us to be and to give our gifts away, He gives us even more opportunities to shine—and to be blessed by serving—in return.

The moments when you choose to serve others, to put their needs first, determine the kind of stories you tell tomorrow.

SIX: CONNECT

Show me your friends and I will show you your future—Author unknown 

In the Bible, Solomon wrote, “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm” (Prov. 13:20). 

1. We’re connected, yet we feel lonelier than ever. Poverty used to mean only one thing. Now sociologists are acknowledging at least three types of poverty:

~Material poverty: the lack of basic needs

~Spiritual poverty: the lack of eternal meaning

~Relational poverty: the lack of intimate friendships

Based on where you are right now, the decision you most need to make may be to connect. Because believe it or not, you could be one friend away from changing direction.

2. “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord” (Acts 9:27–28). What happened? Barnabas staked his reputation on Paul’s conversion being real. Barnabas vouched for his new friend’s faith in Christ, telling the other disciples about the passion Paul had when he preached about Jesus, something that’s hard to fake. Because of Barnabas, the other disciples gave Paul a chance. One friendship. One massive difference in Paul’s life. An even bigger difference in the world.

3. Consider the three types of friends everyone needs to reach their God-given potential: (a) a friend to challenge you and bring out your best, (b) a friend to help you find strength in God and to grow in your faith, and (c) a friend to tell you the truth, especially when you don’t want to hear it.

4. “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (Prov. 27:17 NLT). Instead of hanging out with people who dull your skills or put down your dreams, it’s time you start finding friends who make you sharper. If you connect with someone who makes you better today, the stories you tell tomorrow will become even more meaningful to you and others. Who sees you, the real person inside you, the way God sees you?

Who helps you find strength in God? If you don’t have anyone, it’s time for you to connect with someone who can help. God already has that person ready for you. It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help. It’s a sign of wisdom.

5. You’re one friend away from a better marriage. You’re one confession away from overcoming an addiction. You’re one conversation away from getting in better shape. You’re one introduction away from climbing out of the doldrums. You’re one mentor away from exercising your gifts and becoming a better leader. It’s not too late to connect with someone who will change your destiny. Your decision to connect will change the story you tell one day.

SEVEN: TRUST

When you can’t see God’s hand, trust His heart—Emily Freeman

1. Life is tough. If you (or someone you care about) isn’t facing some real challenges right now, you should probably pause to enjoy it while you thank God. The truth is, in this sin-stained world, the painless times don’t seem to last very long. When life gets tough, and we know it will, how we respond can either build our faith and draw us closer to Christ or weaken our intimacy with Him as we slide in the wrong direction.

2. “How can I worship a God I can’t trust?” Will we trust that God is good even when life is not? Our response to pain and challenges determines so much about our future. If we decide to trust, we will grow in our faith, deepen in our intimacy with God, and be conformed to the image of Christ. But if we allow our hearts to drift, we’ll wake up one day drowning in doubts, buried in burdens, and feeling far from the only one who can help us heal.

3. Doubt—or the absence of trust—comes in all shapes and sizes. Some people might doubt God’s very existence. Is God there? Is He real? Is He good? Is He involved? Does He even care? Some people argue that if you have any type of doubt, then you don’t have strong faith. I’d suggest looking at it from a different angle: you might not have strong faith unless you push through some honest doubts. In order to decide to trust, you have to let yourself doubt.

Many people struggle to trust God fully because they want a logical, rational approach to life. But by its very nature, faith requires trust in something—or in someone—that’s not always predictable or understandable by human standards. 

Doubting Thomas became Trusting Thomas, and it changed the rest of his story. His life teaches us that doubt is not the end of real faith but often the beginning. Thomas trusted Jesus enough to die for Him. Do you trust Him enough to live for Him? 

I wonder how many times Jesus might want to ask us, “Why are you so afraid? Why do you doubt My goodness? Why do you try to do everything yourself? Why don’t you trust Me?”

4. “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me... When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You...” (Jonah 2:2, 7). Notice when Jonah remembered God: it was during his distress. When you’re drowning, you need a life preserver. When there’s a storm, you need shelter. When you’re hurting, you need a comforter. God allows storms in our lives for a variety of reasons, and one of them is to draw us closer to Him.

5. To trust God regardless of your circumstances, remember two things when you’re caught in a storm.

~ First, God’s presence is with you, no matter how alone you may feel, He is always with you. Having Jesus in the stern beside you doesn’t mean the storm won’t rock your boat. It just means the storm won’t sink you.

~ Second, not only is God with you in the storms, He will also use them for His purposes in your life. No matter how terrible it may seem in the moment, God always has a higher plan and a good purpose because He loves you more than you can imagine.

The disciples didn’t experience the storm because they were out of God’s will. The disciples experienced the storm because they were in God’s will. Their ordeal wasn’t some accident, some freak event that took Jesus by surprise. He knew the storm was coming. And He knew it would serve a higher purpose in the lives of those He loved.

6. I can’t tell you whether God causes storms or just allows them. But one thing you can count on is this: God always uses storms. When we love Him and we’re pursuing His purposes, He’s always working things out for our good (Rom. 8:28). If you know that God is always with you and that He uses everything for your good, why are you so afraid? Trust Him. The more you get to know God, the more your faith will grow.

God often allows you to experience more than you can handle to teach you to trust and depend on Him.

“‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9–10).

7. What are you so afraid of? Do you still have little faith? Trust God with whatever you’ve been holding back. Trust Him with your future spouse. Trust Him with your children. Trust Him with your career. Trust Him with your health. Trust Him with your finances. Trust Him without reservation. Period. 

CONCLUSION: BIG IMPACT

1. I know it’s hard to imagine, but one day people are going to talk about you. And what I’ve learned from all those funerals is this: at the end of your life, those who loved you most won’t talk about many of the things that consume your thinking today. So many of the things we strive for, chase after, and emphasize in our culture never get mentioned in those settings. It’s not what they did that mattered but who they were. Their motives, their attitudes, their feelings—the kind of person they were—these are the things for which they’re remembered.

2. When we think about the kind of person we want others to remember us for being, it’s much easier to work backward from our deaths to make the choices now that can help us grow into that person. 

When we know our destination, it’s much clearer when and where we should start, stop, stay, and go.

3. Imagine a person in heaven explaining how your life impacted them. How your story changed their story. God wants your story to be more than “happily ever after.” He wants you to be fulfilled “eternally ever after.” If you allow Him, your story will become written in a language more meaningful, with themes more beautiful, than you could ever imagine.

What the enemy had meant for evil, God used for good. And the same can be true for you. When you stand at the fork in the road, have the faith and courage to choose the hard path over the easy one when the hard one is right.

The choice is yours.

The time is now.

To step into your divine direction.

 

DIVINE DIRECTION

CRAIG GROESCHEL