A silent rowboat drifting to no particular place. The other boats clustering at port look normal. Why is this one floating alone?  The motor is in place. The oars, you can see them. They are a little splintered but they are serviceable. How confusing. Why is this boat drifting? The absence of anchor and rope makes everything clear. Isn’t this like some churchgoers today? Sometimes you see them, they are full of God’s Words. Other times, if you didn’t know better, you might think, “I need to help them find Jesus.” It is an odd thought for a believer in Jesus to need help finding Him. Isn’t He with you everywhere you go? Quality decisions are like anchors for a rowboat. They steady you.  They help you stay in port. They keep you from making a living mess out of your life. Let’s look at how quality decisions keep you from drifting.

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Hebrews 2:1 (GW)
1 For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard. Then we won’t drift away from the truth.

Quality Decisions Keep Drift Out of Your Life

• There is enough complexity in life.
• Enough to keep you moving away from focusing on what matters.

1 Cor. 2:1 through 1 Cor. 2:2 (NLT)
1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn’t use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God’s message. 2 For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.

• Paul made a decision in 1Corinthians 2:2. He said, “For I determined. I made a resolution. This was my fixed, deliberate purpose when I came to you. It was not a matter of accident, or chance, that I made Christ my great and constant theme, but it was my deliberate purpose.
• Paul made this resolution, knowing the special fondness of the Greeks for lofty words, brilliant ideas and wonderful orations.
• Paul made the decision because he was inclined to focus on the same areas as the Greeks.
• He was inclined to suck the mental candy of philosophy.
• He was inclined to loftiness. Paul was educated with the best of them.
• Paul determined he would not allow drift in his life.
• Every man is a genius in his own arena.
• Paul said, “I am deciding to stay in the arena of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
• You have to fight to stay straight.
• Resolve to stay on God’s wavelength.

Why You Should Make Quality Decisions

• If you don’t, the only good that you will do will come by accident. That’s the life of a drifter.
• Decision making is purposeful living.
• Decision making is thoughtful living.
• It is what keeps your carnal nature from dominating your life.
• Your carnal nature, the same flesh that led you into excess and sin when you were in the world, resists spiritual progress. It raises its sign in protest every time.

Gal. 5:16-17 (NKJV)
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

• Then comes the excuses. You know what excuses are? They are how you keep your guard up when your conscience is beating your face in. Everyone wants a way out.
• You can’t wait until you feel like praying before you pray.
• You resolve to do it before you have to do it.
• If you wait until ‘you feel like doing’ before you do, you will never get it done.
• There is a blessing in pressing.

Discipline is the Managing Part of a Quality Decision

What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are. And what we are are the results of previous years of self-discipline. – H.P. Liddon

• Your nature does not care for this word.
• Comfortable is much nicer.
• Your nature would rather lie down when it’s time to pray.
• It wants to withhold when it’s time to give.
• Why not throw in some entertainment while you are at it?
• “After all”, you might say” I can’t understand the Bible anyway. So why read it?”
• Did you ever wonder whose voice is speaking? You know the one constantly calling out to you?
• The voice has a name. It’s called feeling.
• Discipline will silence the shrill chords of feeling.

What is Discipline?

• According to Webster, discipline is training that develops self-control, character, or orderliness and efficiency.
• Discipline is doing what you really don’t want to do, so you can do what you really need to do.
• Did you notice the similarity between disciple and discipline?
• One is in the other.
• The word means to teach or to train, bring up, or to discipline.
• A disciple is a disciplined trained one!

Matthew 28:19 (KJV)
19 Go ye therefore and teach (make disciples of) all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

• The word ‘teach’ here is incorrectly translated. It should have been translated ‘make disciples of’.
• Becoming a disciple is greater than just hearing Bible teaching. Discipleship involves commitment to what is being taught.
• Discipline is a companion to the decision we make committing to spiritual things.
• Another word that goes along with decision and discipline is determination.
• Notice the three D’s we have going on here.
• Professor Webster again adds this clarity. Determination is a fixed purpose, resolution, or intention.
• Can you see why a quality decision has to include determination?

Luke 9:51 (KJV)
51And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

Most men fail, not through lack of education, but from lack of dogged determination and dauntless will. – Charles Swindoll

Call to Action:

You are never too young or too old to become an eagle. It takes a quality decision to start. Age has little to do with soaring. Discipline plays a part as does determination. The three D’s can help you become what you are supposed to be.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on this subject by clicking on these links.

1. How Quality Decisions Keep You from Drifting

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QUESTION: What have you learned about decisions which could help us all grow? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.