Righteous Deciders

 
It seems easier to comprehend a God of the grand and monumental but what of the random and trivial?

Can I make a decision that He does not know?

Can the wind change the course of His intentions?

Can my decision alter His plan?

Can circumstances accumulate beyond His control?

My day will be filled with thousands of decisions, some are recognizable as consequencial but most are not even acknowledged as a decision.

Every decision is a dalliance with the future.  We speculate against the opaqueness of uncertainty.

How silly it is to play a blind prophet when we have One who controls it all? He knows how our individual minds work.  He knows the clouds that impede our thoughts and reasoning.  He has given us wisdom, knowledge, and reasoning.  He has given us prayer. 

Why do we become undone when decisions come?  Could it be that fear has shackled out minds at one of life’s respites because we cannot peer beyond the bend?

Good decision making does not remove uncertainty. It merely enables our minds to live with it. However, we usually live with uncertainty in the most unrighteous of ways.  We glorify the decisive decision makers.  We heap prestige upon the visionaries who appear prophetic of future’s prospects.

Yet, we ignore the One who  holds uncertainty’s tolls.

Believers should display our belief in the most practical of ways, by how we decide.  I suggest that righteousness displayed in decisiveness shows glorious godliness.  

This is my suggestion on how a Christian should decide:

1. Pray
2. Use your mind; use your knowledge and wisdom. They are gifts of God for this purpose.
3. Pray some more.
4. Ensure you are on solid Biblical ground and walking in the Spirit.
5. Pray some more.
6. Ask for wise counsel.  The body of Christ is our gift for this purpose.
7. Pray some more.
8. Weigh the cost. Weigh the benefits.
9. Pray some more.
10. Make the decision and then trust.  

Our decision making should not display anxiety and apprehension.  Our decision making should not be indecisive.  A righteous decider should display belief.  Belief that nothing is beyond God’s power.  Belief that God is a good Father.  Belief that God knows me down to the dwindling hairs on my head. Belief that the Spirit of God has been participating in this decision that I am making.

Belief that in Christ, I cannot make a bad decision.

I can make a righteous decision that may not turn out as I had hoped or planned, but that doesn’t mean it was incorrect to God.

I can make a righteous decision that may result in all sorts of unfortunate, unintended consequences, but that doesn’t mean it’s a mess that God has to clean up.

I can make a decision that displays my faith and confidently live in all the consequences because God holds the past, present, and future.

So, let’s start glorifying God in how we decide.

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HEY! HOW DID THAT “BUT” GET IN? – Dec. 2nd

“Hittites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites, heard of this, they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel. But when the inhabitants of Gideon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning…” Joshua 9:1b-4a

I often work as a consultant to government entities on regulatory issues. The majority of applicants don’t want to do what the code requires. It costs them money. Therefore, they try an assortment of strategies to circumvent the requirements. Their strategies fall into two broad categories – fighters and manipulators.

Fighters will come in with all guns a-blazing. They will assemble their team of experts and attorneys and we’ll have a go at it. I have no problem with fighters. I like and respect them. The system is built for them and they are working it as it was intended.  The manipulators are another story.  They are the soothsayers that will tell you what you want to hear all the while cunningly plotting to do exactly the opposite. They are difficult to spot since they appeal to your sensibilities.  However, their appeal to cronyism can have disastrous long-term consequences.  I would be a fool to think there were only “fighter” adversaries out there.

However, we Christians often make that naïve mistake. We think that we either don’t have any adversaries or that our adversaries are only those who blatantly fight against the Faith. I have been astonished at how some will take at face value the soothing words of a person that they personally know nothing about.

I am reminded of a sister in the Lord whose husband left her and their children through acts of stunning deception. She said that she found out that he was not what he appeared – he was very cunning. She now has to deal with this person for the foreseeable future. I have seen Churches devastated by a Pastor who came in saying all the right words but time revealed that he may not have even been a believer. They are still rebuilding and recovering.

It is so very easy to be deceived when we rely upon our own senses. Some may say, “But I have the gift of discernment.”  Really; Do you have more discernment than Joshua, who was “full of the spirit of wisdom” (Deut. 34:9)?  If Joshua could be deceived, then you and I can be deceived.

There is no decision that will not wait to allow time to seek the Lord in prayer. That was the Israelites error – they did not ask counsel of the Lord (Josh. 9:14).  Any person who will be offended by you seeking the counsel of the Lord is someone that you should reject, summarily.

Our typical response is to accept that which appeals to our senses – “but I love him”, “but he is such a great speaker”, “but it is logical”, “but it just feels right”, “but look at her resume”, “but they come from a great family”, “but they are so consistent in these areas”….but, but, but.

We are foolish to accept the “buts” without prayer. Be careful relying upon your own senses, you may just end up having to live with a “butt”.

PRAYER: Lord, Protect me from my own confidence and pride; Forgive me for acting as if I don’t need you.  Lord, I need your wisdom in all aspects of my life and especially in those areas of discernment. Father, remind me of my need for you; humble me so that I will seek you in all things. Protect me from disception, particularly my own.  Amen