Study Guide Questions for “Just Do Something” by Kevin DeYoung

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

     If you’ve never read Kevin DeYoung’s, “Just Do Something”, I highly recommend it.  It is an easy-to-read, short, and extremely helpful book that explains how to “find God’s will” in a biblical way.  While there are two or three study guide questions available online, I found that they weren’t necessarily aimed at helping shape a relationship among the people studying the book.  While they have good questions about information, my goal in a book study is to go deeper than facts about a topic, and to get to how these facts relate our lives.  Because of this, I prepared questions for each chapter, and am putting them up here for anyone to use.  If you are considering leading a group through this book, I recommend doing two chapters at a time.  They are all fairly short, and if you take ten weeks to do the study I think some people will become tired of the topic.

Chapter 1

1. What is DeYoung’s main illustration in chapter 1?

2. Do you think DeYoung is right to suggest that most of us are tinkerers?

3. As a follow-up: DeYoung says that most of us aren’t consistent, or stable; we are worried about decisions, constantly engaging in self-exploration.  Do you either know someone like that or think that it’s true about yourself?

4. He then argues that we pass off this worry and indecisiveness as “looking for God’s will.”  Have you ever done this, yourself? Do you currently do this?  You don’t need to share this out loud, but it’s worth thinking about.

Chapter 2

1. When we say “God’s will”, what are the three different ways we use that term?  Just list them out.

2. What is God’s will of decree?  Do you think this is Biblical?  Look at the passages that DeYoung cites.  Which ones does he use to explain God’s will of decree?

3. What is God’s will of desire?   What is the main passage that puts God’s will of decree and God’s will of desire side-by-side?

4. What is God’s will of direction?

5. DeYoung asks, “Does God have a secret will of direction that He expects us to figure out before we do anything?”  What is his answer?  Do you agree? Disagree? Why or why not?

6. Consider DeYoung’s statement on page 25, “Many of us fear we’ll take the wrong job, or marry the wrong person, and suddenly our lives will blow up.  We’ll be out of God’s will, doomed to spiritual, relational, and physical failure.”  If DeYoung is right in arguing that the Bible doesn’t tell us that God has a secret will of direction we must discern, then what does that do for these fears?

7.  End by considering these three statements on page 26,

“Trusting in God’s will of decree is good. Following His will of desire is obedient. Waiting for God’s will of direction is a mess.”  How do you think we should make decisions about what to do in our lives if DeYoung is right about this?

Chapter 3

1. DeYoung argues that Christians want to know God’s will of direction for at least five reasons.  Off the top of your head, can you think of any reasons you yourself have been interested in finding God’s will of direction?

2. List the five reasons that DeYoung says we want to know God’s will of direction:

3. Of all of the reasons, which ones resonate with you?

4.  DeYoung says, “I’m not against people leaving their unhappy jobs to take a shot at what they really love…but we need a firm reminder that many of us expect too much out of life.”  Do you think it’s true that we want perfect fulfillment, and that this is one of the motivations to “seek God’s will”?

5. Which “one question” out of the many does DeYoung say is the most important option to consider?

6. DeYoung ends the chapter by considering cowardice.  He says, “We want God to tell us what to do so everything will turn out pleasant for us.”  What are the downfalls of thinking this way?

Chapter 4

1. What are some of the pitfalls to the “conventional” approach to the will of God?

2. Does the Bible focus more on moral or nonmoral decisions?  If this is the case, then why do you think we focus so much on finding God’s will for which job we should take, etc?

3. Do you think the conventional approach to the will of God makes God into a sneaky God?  Does it make us preoccupied with the future?

4. How many of you have personally used or seen examples of people using “God’s will” to avoid personal responsibility?

5. Have you personally become anxious because of this approach to God’s will?

Chapter 5

1. If you had to summarize DeYoung’s argument in chapter 5, what does he say is “the better way” to seeking God’s will?

2. Kevin DeYoung analyzes the apostle Paul’s teaching on the will of God, and says that there are 4 different things that Paul means when he uses that idea.  What are those 4 things?

3. Holy, set apart lives, “He wants you to buy a house that will make you holy.  If you marry, He wants you to get married so you can be holy.  He wants you to have a job that will help you grow in holiness.”  How does this idea change the way you think about work and family?

4. To rejoice, pray, and give thanks, “Are you joyful always? Are you praying continually? Are you giving thanks in all circumstances?”

5. Bearing fruit and knowing God better, “Do you think you’ve grown in your knowledge of God? Have you seen spiritual fruit in your life?”

6. Be filled with the Holy Spirit (singing and thanking and submitting).  Do you enjoy singing?

7. “Simply put, God’s will is your growth in Christlikeness.”  While this doesn’t necessarily help you make a decision between a blue or red shirt today, how is this idea helpful?

Chapter 6

1. How has God guided his people in the past, according to DeYoung?

2. Did the apostles regularly have special revelation?  What sort of revelation did they have?  Did they seek this revelation before making decisions?

3. How does God guide us today?

4. He ends it saying, “God can use extraordinary means, but they are, by definition, out of the ordinary and not to be expected.”  Do you think that’s true?

Chapter 7

1. How can the idea of the “open door” be both a bad and a good thing?

2. What is the difference between prudence and “laying out a fleece”? What is the problem of “laying out a fleece”?

3. Is there danger in the approach of flipping to random Bible verses to make a decision?

4. What’s the problem with impressions? Does prayer make impressions “correct” or “perfect”?

Chapter 8

1. What is the difference between information and wisdom?

2. What is wisdom?

3. What should our attitude be towards wisdom?

4. How do we get wisdom (three ways)?

5. How do we develop a “taste” for godliness?

6. What is the role of “counsel” in getting wisdom?

7. What do we pray for if we aren’t asking God to show us what to do?

8. Is wisdom a one-time thing?

Chapter 9

Work

1. What principles from the Bible influence the type of job we take, and where we take a job?

2. Based off of the things we learned last week—what are the next two ways to think through taking a job?

3. What sort of prayers should we make about taking a job?

4. How have we turned the idea of calling upside-down?

5. What’s the difference between complacency and contentment?

Marriage

1. While many of us may be married, what are some things you found helpful about DeYoung’s discussion of marriage?  If you are unmarried, what have you found helpful?

2. What do you think of his discussion of “the one”/ “soul mate”?

Chapter 10

1. What do you think the “lesson” is from the story of Grandpa Van?

2. DeYoung says that if we’re going to be anxious about anything, what is it we ought to be anxious about?

---