Customer Reviews

What Does God Want?

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ever been faced with a difficult or heart wrenching decision? Have you ever felt that God doesn't seem to be communicating His will to you even though you're trying as hard as you know how, to figure out what it is? This little book offers a process of discernment that is invaluable. The nine chapters offer guidance in the form of questions that you ask yourself and reflect on when you are in the process of making a decision. The text is enlivened by little anecdotes of real people who had to make decisions that sometimes, were not very clearcut. Using the steps in this book, I have been able to see how God has communicated with me throughout my life. It has increased my trust in His concern and love for me and my family. Following the steps in this book will help you be at peace with your decisions and will eliminate impulse as a factor in the choices you make. I highly recommend it.

This book is easy and enjoyable to read but also thought provoking and helpful. Fr. Scanlon offers practical advice and helpful examples in discerning God's will in your life. This inexpensive little book is a valuable resource.

Decisions great and small started becoming grueling ordeals in my life, to the consternation of my friends, family, and hubby. It seemed I wanted God to be more of a factor in my decision-making processes, but wasn't sure how to do this beyond just praying repeatedly for wisdom. However, this book breaks down the decision-making process from a faith-based perspective and offers the wisdom of the author's experienced observations (he used to do spiritual direction) on how God communicates to us His will in our decision making through our feelings, signs, circumstances, prayer, etc. I've xeroxed the workbook-type exercises in here too and regularly run all of my major life decisions through them. Overall, I feel much more ready to make decisions than I ever have.

Though this book was written by a priest the spiritual concepts and discernment are applicable to any Judeo-Christian based faith. I have given this book to Jewish as well as Catholic friends. According to Father Scanlan there are 5 steps of discernment (I paraphrase):

consistency with God's laws
conversion - does it bring you closer to or further away from God
confirmation - external
confirmation - internal
consistency with things God has placed in your path in the past

This is a wonderful practical guide.

I keep having to order more copies of this book because I keep giving it away to people who are trying to make major life decisions. I really like its deeply spiritual yet down-to-earth practical approach. It is user-friendly in that it can be read in short installments, pondering over the excellent questions raised by each section. It encourages true discernment about one's life.

I have found this book to be personally useful and inspirational as a gift to others. I regularly give it out as graduation gifts in the hopes that young people will include God as they make their important life decisions. EVERYONE can benefit from this book to lead a fuller, successful, happier life. Fr. Scanlon implemented these practices throughout his life and is almost single-handedly responsible for turning Franciscan University into the faith-filled place it is today.

This book has become important in my decision making strategy. As a husband, father, and business owner, I wanted to find a resource that got to the point, was easy to read, and was faith-centric. I have a lot going on and need to use my time wisely. This book provides an effective 5-step test to evaluating your decisions - both large and small. For someone looking to get unstuck from a decision and move forward in peace, I highly recommend this book. Finally, I like knowing who the author's are before I pickup a book. Fr. Scanlan has been a very important agent for change to both organizations and individuals. This is a solid read!

Matt Rudmann. (...)

This book does have quite a bit of actual Christian common sense content in the chapters; however, the actual chapters might have only two or three scripture references in them. To me, a book about "What God wants" should be quoting scripture a little more often to back up the content; scripture should be the "meat and potatoes", and in this book, it isn't referenced very often.

To his credit, Michael Scanlan does an excellent job in the summary sections after each of the nine chapters trying to give actionable steps relation to each chapter. Again, though, it only gives you the "big picture", and has no supplemental scripture to reflect on while praying about the topic in the certain chapter.

I'm not giving this book five stars due to the lack of scripture content to accompany the content in the chapters as well as the actionable summary items. However, I'm giving this two stars for the great summary sections.

Decent book with solid decision making suggestions if you are seeking a way to discern God's will for your life or for certain aspects of your life. At the same time, the author tends to be incredibly conservative in his approach and uses very classic gender roles in all of his examples. I don't always agree with his view, but it's a decent read. If you have a tendency to be liberal in your faith at ALL, this may not be the book for you.