The most difficult choices we face are usually not between good and bad, but between good and best.
This is why we need to decide in advance what is best.
To prioritize your devotion to Jesus, you must reduce distractions.


What's the biggest obstacle preventing us from connecting with Jesus? For many, it's our mobile devices.
According to research, the average person can't stand looking at their phone for less than ten minutes, and they touch their phone 2,617 times a day.
Humanity has lived without cell phones for thousands of years, but today our Trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Phone.
Perhaps the bigger distraction within the distraction of cell phones is social media.
As we mentioned earlier, people spend about seventeen hours a week on social media.
That's over seven years in a lifetime.


Pause for a moment and read the paragraph above again.
Don't take these statistics for granted.
Read it again and think deeply.
You will spend more than seven years of your life on social media.
You'll spend seven years scrolling, clicking, feeling left out because you weren't invited, comparing, feeling inferior because you don't have what they have, and feeling bad because you're always commenting on other people's pictures and no one is commenting on yours.

---From Chapter 2

We must be committed.
We must put God first in our lives.
We must seek God first.
This may feel burdensome.
It may feel like God is asking too much of us.
There is something to remember at such times.
God has already made us first.
“We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
God asks us to seek Him first.
But God came to us first.
God asks us to dedicate our lives to Him.
But God gave his life for us first on the cross.
God didn't just decide to do it that way.
God decided 'in advance' to do that for us.

---From Chapter 2

Most people think of their work as something they do just to get paid.
But our work is not simply about making a living.
We must decide in advance what we will consider our work.
If we choose to live faithfully, God can completely change someone's life with just one word of encouragement from our mouths.
My life is proof of that.
This is why I am a pastor today.


When I was serving as a high school evangelist, my life revolved around serving Jesus in the church.
So when I first applied for ordination as a pastor, I was confident that the church officials would recognize the calling of God that was clearly evident in my life.
But shockingly, the church rejected me.
I will never forget the words of the church officials.
“I’m not sure you have what it takes to be a pastor.”

The moment I heard those words, it felt like my life was falling apart.
After hearing the news, I cried all the way back in my small, old car.
I got rejected… .


I returned to church, fell on the pastor's desk, and sobbed.
Pastor Nick Harris looked at me and said,
“Craig, listen to me.
“Craig, listen to me.” I stopped crying.
“Craig, no one can stop God from calling you.”

This is why I am a pastor today.
Everything I have done for the kingdom of God began with that one word.
Harris was faithful to God by speaking words that shed light on my dark situation.
God spoke words of life to me through Harris's lips and sustained me to continue toward my calling.

---From Chapter 3

Long ago, I conducted a funeral, and a famous businessman from this city attended the funeral.
The businessman was a hugely successful man, but he was more famous for his promiscuous and debauched lifestyle.
But it was clear that I was spiritually moved at the funeral.
Because he later called my office and told my secretary:
“I don’t go to Life Church and I’m not a particularly religious person.
“But I have a few questions I’d like to ask you. Could I meet with you, Pastor?” Of course, I readily made the time.


We met at a restaurant during the day and every seat was taken.
Then the restaurant owner asked us if we could sit at the bar, and the businessman said, “No problem.”
It suddenly occurred to me that the pastor was sitting at a bar next to a famous sinner.
And people seemed to be glancing at us with that thought in mind.
But I quickly focused on the person in front of me because I had decided in advance that I would live for him even if there was only one audience member.
I was reminded that Jesus was often criticized for “eating with sinners and tax collectors” and that he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:16-17).


I sat down with the businessman and had a meaningful conversation.
I could clearly feel that he was making spiritual progress and advancing in his faith toward Jesus.
How wonderful! This is the Christian mission.


But when I returned to my office, I had already received two calls from members of other churches who were burning with a sense of mission to tell the world that Pastor Craig Groeschel had been sitting in a bar with a sinner.
But they should have said, “I just saw your pastor act like Jesus.”


We must go out into the world.
We must be salt and light there.
We must influence people who are loved by God and who need Jesus.
(We must do so even at the risk of being criticized for being in a bar.) We must decide in advance that:
“I will exert a positive influence.”
---From Chapter 4

“If you want to be generous when you have a lot of money, you must learn to be generous when you have little.” If you want to be generous later, you must be generous now.
Do you agree with this statement but don't know what to do? Or perhaps you lack the confidence to be generous? This is where the power of decision-making shines.
We must decide in advance to do this.
“I will live generously.” I worship a generous God.
“For God so loved the world that he gave…” (John 3:16).
I follow the generous Savior.
He is generous enough to give his life for me.
I will give generously because my identity is rooted in Jesus.

---From Chapter 5

Paul urges Timothy to be patient.
Why? Because it reminded me of what I had experienced.
Paul had to endure rejection, betrayal, persecution, beatings, stoning, and imprisonment.
He encouraged Timothy, knowing that he would experience something similar.
“You may face hardships, but don’t give up.
“Everyone else will give up, but you must not give up.”

Paul was able to say this because he did not give up and persevered until the end, ultimately achieving his goal.
See his next post.
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day…” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

How wonderful it is to be able to write such words as I face death. Paul is essentially saying this.
“I decided in advance that I would be a loyal and influential person.
“Now, at the end of my life, I have done it,” he said, confessing a decision he made about his life years ago.
“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus—to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).


Now, at the finish line of the race, Paul speaks to Timothy.
“I did it.
I have done the work God gave me.
“I am a man who finishes what he started.” I am sure that when Paul meets you, he will give you the same advice he gave Timothy.
Hard times will come.
You will face hardships along the way.
But don't give up.
You are a person who finishes what you start.
Once you start something, don't give up halfway through.


We must not get tired.
You must not give up.
Greatness must be achieved through patience.
You must be the one who finishes what you start.
You must decide in advance what you will do:
“Once I decide to do something, I won’t quit halfway.”

---From Chapter 7