We started this week’s series of posts by considering the difficult decisions we all make. Whether rare consequential decisions or frequent minor decisions, decision-making can be anxiety-inducing. As we observed David’s decision-making process in 1st Samuel chapters 23 and 24, what did we learn?
First, while David didn’t have a Bible to consult, he had the Urim and Thummim. Read about them here. You and I don’t have a Urim and Thummim, but we can learn about God’s will by studying the Bible. We have such a gift of being able to read the Bible in our own language with loads of resources for helping us understand it. I love my NIV Study Bible. There are plenty of excellent tools to help us read the Bible intelligently and faithfully.
Second, David regularly asked God for his direction, waiting on God to guide. In the last ten years or so, I have benefited greatly from the contemplative tradition in the Christian faith. Contemplative prayer emphasizes listening to God. God’s Spirit is quite capable of communicating, if he wants to. Sometimes through nature, sometimes through impressions in your spirit, sometimes through dreams, sometimes through audible voices. The Spirit might not communicate in any of those ways, and that is okay. Remember the previous paragraph. God has given us principles for wise decision-making in the Bible.
Third, we invite others into our process. We practice community discernment. Notice David welcoming the opinions of his friends. He doesn’t automatically do what they say, but he gives them a voice in his life. He pauses to hear them out. They push back on him, and so he goes back to the Lord a second time, basically saying, “Did I hear you right, Lord?” Others who love Jesus can help us greatly as we process difficult life choices.
When we are making difficult choices, we go to God, we give those decisions to God in all these ways: studying the Bible, listening prayer, welcoming the input of other people who love him. Then we decide on a course of action. If the choice is between sin and not sin, we choose not sin. But if the choice is between many options, none of which are sinful, we can use wisdom, applying what we learn in the Bible, in prayer and from others to make a choice. When we do this we seek the heart of God like David did.
There are plenty of difficult choices in life where we are evaluating numerous “not sin” options. But even choosing between many “not sin” options can be complicated. When I say “not sin,” it is more than just not committing the obvious sins of theft or murder. Not sinning also means we are passionate about seeking God’s heart and his values rather than just assuming we know what is important to him. This is why I encourage you to not assume that our culture, even our Christian culture, is thinking correctly about the many choices in life. It is entirely possible that the majority could be wrong. It is entirely possible that the social group we spend time with could be wrong. It is entirely possible that the way the people we admire look at the world could be wrong. Instead, as we consider the many choices we could make, we strive to know God’s heart.
Often as we consider the many options we could choose, we desire “the best one.” We want to make the choice that will result in the best situation for us and our family. But what is the best option? How do we know what is the best option? I would like to suggest that we think about decision-making differently than seeking “the best” option. Trying to figure out the best option can lead us to deep frustration. How will we know if we got the best? We can’t know. Just like we can’t know the future. We’ll never know if we got the best option.
Instead, we choose a “not sin” option that we believe is in clearly in line with God’s heart, and we step forward in confidence knowing that God will support us, precisely because it is in line with his heart. During our process of decision-making, we pray asking for God’s correction, for his redirection, because we might need a change in direction to keep us aligned with his heart. Thus it is vital for us to stay teachable, humble, and committed to knowing his heart. That is another reason studying the Bible regularly is so important.
When we study the Bible, prayer and listen, and receive the wise counsel of others, and then we make a choice, though we will never know if it was the best choice, we will know that God supports us because our choice was in line with what he desires.
That means we don’t have to linger and linger and linger in uncertainty. When we responsibly make a reasonable effort to study God’s word, to prayer and listen, and receive wise counsel, we can confidently decide, even if we still feel somewhat uncertain or risky or nervous. We step forward in faith in God, knowing that he is for us!
I’m indebted to Garry Friesen’s ideas in his book Decision-Making and The Will of God for informing the post.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 