“Dear Fr. Anthony, my name is ________ and I need your help. I have a problem and I need to decide between option A, option B and option C. And I don’t know what to do. I need your help. How can I know God’s will for my life?”
Believe me, if I had a dollar for every time I received a question like that, I’d be a rich rich man.
That’s because it’s the most common question we ask: HOW DO I KNOW GOD’S WILL?
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I’m talking leadership again today and this week I want to share the 2nd MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION when it comes to be being a great leader.
Last week, I said that the #1 question is “what would a GREAT LEADER do?” Or what would a great PARENT do? Or what would a great FRIEND do? Or what would a great SERVANT OF GOD do? Whatever the context may be, find someone you consider to be “great” in that area and ask yourself “what would that person do in this situation?”
That was question #1.
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Decisions, decisions, decisions. Should I accept this job? Should I marry this person? Should I listen to that person’s advice? How do I know what to do?
If I had a dollar for every time I get asked that question, I’d be a rich man. Young and old, rich and poor, married and single, spiritual and non-spiritual people – all struggle with the same question: how do I know the “right” thing to do in the situation I’m in?
Read MoreSurprise! You thought that the Seasoning Life series was all done but we had a special BONUS message yesterday - courtesy of none other than my brother, Steve Messeh.
In this message, Steve talks not about the daily habits that can make us questionable, but instead about the big, fork-in-the-road type decisions that characterize so many of the great men and women of God who have gone before us. He shares three highly questionable decisions and the outcomes for those who made them.
Check out and get ready to be inspired!
This week's message was the finale in the World-Changers series and it was my personal favorite. It's a message I believe in very deeply and is at the fundamental core of who I am and why I do what I do. And that message is this...
OBEDIENCE IS THE MEANS BY WHICH GOD BLESSES OUR LIVES.
I don't know about you, but I want to be blessed by God. And I believe God wants to bless me even more than I want to blessed. So finding His blessing and finding His peace and finding His joy isn't a game of hide and seek. And most of the time, I'd say He wants to give it to me even more than I want to receive it.
But the means by which that blessing will come is OBEDIENCE. God gives us forks in the road every day and what we do at those forks will determine whether or not we find blessing.
If you’re a parent like me, there’s a word that gets repeated in your home daily. Most children don’t like it very much, but it’s something they need to learn – not just for their own sake, but for the sake of the rest of society. It’s a word that – even though we can’t always agree on its meaning – we all agree on its importance.
What’s the word? RESPONSIBILITY
(cue the high pitched shriek in the background)
responsible: ‘answerable or accountable, as for something within one's power, control, or management’
A child who makes a mistake and owns up to it is not a problem. No matter what the problem is, it can usually be fixed easily once it’s been identified and owned up to. That is what responsibility means.
The problem is when the child makes a mistake and then denies it, or makes excuses or blames others. That child is much less likely to change his behavior, regardless of the consequences. Why? Because he’s never fully taken responsibility for his choices. He sees them as someone else’s fault or the fault of circumstances.
How often do we behave towards God in the very same manner in which we try to teach our kids NOT to behave?
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As a parent, if there’s one lesson that I’ve learned repeatedly over the years, it’s this: as much as I know that God has many things that He wants me to teach my children, He has an equal number of things that He wants me to learn from them.
Last night was one of those nights. All week I’ve been thinking/blogging about the idea of hearing God’s voice and discerning His will – how to make decisions and how to know what’s right, etc. And then last night, during our family Bible time before bed, we read this passage:
“Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:48-50)
After reading that passage, we discussed it together as a family and my kids came to the following conclusion: we need to obey God to be in His family.
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Yesterday I posed one of the most important questions in life: how can I know the “right” thing to do in whatever situation I’m in? Ultimately your life is nothing more than the sum of all your decisions. Make good decisions and you’ll probably find yourself in a good place. Make bad decisions and you’ll find the exact opposite. The question for us is: HOW DO I MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS?
I mentioned yesterday that sometimes it seems (emphasis on the word “seems”) that Jesus was inconsistent in His decisions. Sometimes He would heal people and sometimes He wouldn’t. Sometimes He’d raise the dead person, other times He wouldn’t. Sometimes He’d speak softly and compassionately; other times He spoke sternly and harshly.
How did He know when to heal and when not to heal? How did He know when to say yes and when to say no? How did He know the “right” thing to do?
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