Decision-Making and the Will of God

Have you ever thought about how many decisions we make during a lifetime? Or even over the course of a single day?

 

Probably not, because we’re too busy making decisions to bother tabulating how many we’ve made. But as a speaker recently reminded me, from the time we reach high school, life becomes an endless parade of one decision after another.

 

When we’re kids, the ‘decisions’ we make are more like impulses: Which toy to play with. Whether to eat the food Mom puts in front of us. Whether to read a book or play a video game on our tablet. Whether to clean up our room as we’re told. At that stage of life, we don’t really calculate the significance or consequences of what we do. It’s simply a matter of ‘I want to’ or ‘I don’t want to.’

Decisions – and the decision-making process – take on much more gravity when we reach the high school level. In high school we start to discover and confirm our interests. We decide whether to try out for sports – and which ones. Or we can opt for things like band, which I did. Being in our school marching, concert and dance bands were the highlights of my time at ole Franklin High.

 

As a freshman, being on the college-prep track, I had to choose things like which foreign language to study and which elective subjects to take. I chose Latin and Spanish, which turned out to be very beneficial for my writing career – even though I didn’t realize it then. I also took a year of personal typing, another serendipitous decision that would prove extremely useful.

 

From high school, our decisions become more numerous and complex. Should I go to college? And if so, which one? What should I major in? If I don’t go to college, which line of work should I pursue? We make decisions about where to live, whether to accept a job offer, which car to buy, whether we’re on the right career path, whether we should get married (and to whom), whether we should have children (and when)?

 

Before we know it, we’ve made thousands of decisions, some with very little thought but others we agonized over, realizing they could have long-term ramifications.

 

How are we to master this lifelong process of decision-making? I’m reminded of the young man who asked his mentor, “How do you make good decisions?” The mentor answered, “Through experience.” “How do I gain experience?” the protégé asked. His mentor smiled and replied, “By making bad decisions.”

 

No one wants to make bad decisions, but inevitably we will. Our hope is that the consequences of bad decisions aren’t too serious and can be remedied.

 

There are many perspectives on how to make decisions. For instance, the late New York Yankees catcher and ‘sage’ Yogi Berra suggested to someone, “If you find a fork in the road, take it.” Poet Robert Frost, in “The Road Not Taken,” one of his best-known poems, wrote about “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

 

Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ wrestle with decision-making from a different angle. We ask, “What is God’s will?” reasoning that if God is omniscient – all-knowing – then it would be a good idea to know what He expects of us. The problem is, His will isn’t always clear, especially in regard to specific options we’re considering.

 

For instance, nowhere in the Scriptures does it say, “Go to XYZ College,” or “Work for Such-and-Such Company.” The Bible doesn’t tell us which car to drive. Nor does it specify the name of the person we should marry.

 

However, the Word of God does provide us with sound principles to follow for making crucial decisions. If I’m wondering, “What flavor ice cream cone should I buy?” I’m pretty sure God would say, “Makes no difference to Me. You choose.” But if we’re weighing whether to attend a party where we know there will be an abundance of alcohol and raucous behavior, even a cursory look at the Scriptures makes clear what His will is. We’re told in 1 Thessalonians 4:37, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified…. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”

 

In some cases, God’s will couldn’t be more obvious. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, for example, we’re told, “in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In other words, whether we find ourselves in desirable or undesirable circumstances, we’re to be thankful for them, trusting God is working through them for our ultimate good.

 

The apostle Peter admonished, “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil” (1 Peter 3:17). We will encounter suffering in this life. There’s no question about that. But we should make certain when suffering comes, we haven’t brought it on ourselves. That’s God’s will.

 

If we want to learn how to make good decisions – and avoid making bad ones – there’s no better source for counsel than God’s Word. Whether it’s learning from the bad decisions made by central figures of the Old Testament; drawing insight from wisdom books like Psalms and Proverbs; or studying and seeking to apply the teachings of Jesus, we can find more than enough help for navigating the complex and often confusing world of decision-making.

As Proverbs 1:7 instructs, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Good decision-making starts with knowing God, trusting Him, and obeying what He says. 

Laid Out Any Fleeces Lately?

Let’s face it: Decisions are hard. Well, some aren’t, like, ‘Should I get out of bed this morning?’ (Actually, given the state of things these days, maybe that’s not such an easy decision either.) But often factors involved in decision-making are complicated.

 

This is why some people use the pro vs. con approach, listing the positives of one option and weighing them against its negatives. It might be, ‘Should we move – or should we stay?’ Or, ‘Is it really a good idea to buy a car right now?’ ‘Which college should I attend?’

 

Another approach to making decisions, but not always reliable, is to look for a sign. I’m reminded of the guy who was considering leaving his present circumstances behind and starting off fresh somewhere else. He got into his car and determined to keep driving until he received a sign on what to do. Too bad he was so deep in thought that he missed the sign warning, “Bridge Out Ahead!”

 

This “looking for a sign” strategy is hardly new. In fact, we see a classic example in the sixth chapter of the Old Testament book of Judges. Gideon was a very ordinary fellow, threshing wheat in his father’s winepress. An angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Right away, Gideon suspected this day wasn’t going to be business as usual.

The angel proceeded to tell Gideon that God had chosen him to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites. His first reaction might have been, “Yeah, right!” He replied, “But Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manesseh, and I am the least in my family.”

 

Even with God’s assurance that, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together,” Gideon wasn’t convinced. He answered, “If now I have found favor in Your eyes, give me a sign that it is really You talking to me.” Gideon then boldly decided to choose the specific sign he wanted from the Lord.

 

He stated, “look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You said.” The passage tells us, “And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed and wrung out the dew – a bowlful of water” (Judges 6:37-38).

 

Years ago, a friend who raised sheep for a number of years told me an interesting fact about woolen fleece – it’s water-resistant, because it contains lanolin. So, the fact the fleece was saturated, while the ground surrounding it was dry, was truly a miracle.

 

Despite this “sign,” Gideon couldn’t let go of his skepticism. Maybe he was an ancestor of one of Jesus’ disciples, “doubting Thomas.” So, he cautiously decided to flip the sign on its head: “Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.’ That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew” (Judges 6:39-40).

 

Apparently, Gideon was thinking maybe the fleece was defective – never hurts to check, right? In the following chapter, we’re told God indeed used Gideon to defeat the Midianites, throwing in a couple more signs and miracles along the way for emphasis. The “rest of the story” could be the focus on another post, but clearly this simple guy was one who liked to follow signs.

 

What does this teach us? Are we to respond in similar fashion, insisting that God give us a sign if we sense Him leading us to step far outside our comfort zones?

 

Occasionally this might be appropriate, asking the Lord to confirm what He’s directing us to do. But most of the time He wants us to act in faith, stepping out when we believe He wants us to do so; at other times remaining where we are.

 

Circumstances like this remind me of Psalm 37:3-9, which says, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” 

 

However, lest we act presumptuously and move ahead of Him, God includes this admonition: “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him…those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.”

 

What difficult decisions are you facing right now? Are you considering “laying out a fleece,” asking the Lord to provide a definitive sign? After all, Ecclesiastes 3:1 declares, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” But most of the time, a better plan is to pray fervently; spend time in the Scriptures, asking God to speak to you through them; and when available, seek godly counsel from trusted friends. 

 

Using as many resources as possible before making crucial decisions – not just waiting for a sign – is one certain way to avoid getting “fleeced.”

You Are What You Decide

Have you ever heard the saying, “You are what you eat”? With obesity now at what some experts term epidemic proportions, we see many walking, talking examples of that. What about, “You are what you read”? What we choose to put into our minds, as with what we put into our bodies, can make a huge difference in how we view the world around us. I’d suggest another one: “You are what you decide.”

There are many aspects of this. I recall as a young adult how excited I was to receive my first credit card. I could buy whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it! Sadly, I failed to consider the downsides of my spending decisions – high interest rates and growing balances each month that I couldn’t pay off. As a consequence, I joined the hordes of people encumbered with credit card debt. 

I didn’t realize it at the time, but deciding to acquire things I wanted but really couldn’t afford fit me for the biblical warning, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Thankfully, years later I learned what the Bible teaches about money management. I and my wife (who inherited my debt when we married) received financial counseling based on those principles. We decided to begin the process of slowly getting rid of that debt, and over the years have saved thousands of dollars in interest that would have accrued.

Other decisions over the course of my life also have made an incredible difference in who I am today. I started college in Houston, Texas, where my English instructor encouraged me in the direction of professional writing. Following up on that, I transferred to (the) Ohio State University, where I majored in journalism. Upon graduation, my career in writing and editing was launched at a small newspaper in central Ohio. It wasn’t my dream job, but it turned out to be a critical career decision.

Looking at my vocational path after that, I’m not certain it was guided so much by my own decisions as it was decisions God made for me. As the passage I later adopted as my life verse instructs, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him – and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). That has certainly proved true for me.

While at that first newspaper, I met a young woman with two children and we started dating. Within a year we decided to marry. Although we’ve endured our share of bumps along the way, we’ve enjoyed more than 44 years of marriage. She’s been every bit the “completer” or “helpmate” that God promised when He said in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

Without a doubt, the greatest, most profound decision I have ever made – or will make – in my life has been to receive Jesus Christ into my life as Savior and Lord. As it says in John 1:12, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” After many years of passive, intellectual belief, making a decision based on faith to follow Jesus has changed my life in ways I could never have imagined or even hoped.

These are some of the radical, life-changing decisions I’ve made in my life, ones that have shaped who I have become. But every day we make smaller, yet very significant decisions that influence our attitudes as well as our actions. 

A friend of mine used to say, “You can’t stop birds from flying over your head – but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” We’re bombarded daily with negativity, when it’s the news – as my pastor recently called it, “Bad Morning America”; poisonous messages on social media; inconsiderate texts and emails; or just hostile people in the supermarket checkout line. Unexpected problems threaten to ruin our day.

We can decide to let these diverse messages manipulate our minds, making us just as miserable as many of the folks we encounter. Or we can decide instead to do as the apostle Paul exhorted. For instance, in Romans 12:2 he wrote, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” One paraphrase puts it this way: “Don’t let the world shape you into its mold.”

Elsewhere the apostle instructed his followers, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). Some of us are “glass half full” thinkers: others are more inclined toward “glass half empty.” But even the most positive thinker, if not careful, can become sucked into the darkening gloom that seeks to envelop us. 

Ultimately, we’re the deciders of what we let affect our thinking. As Proverbs 23:7 tells us, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." The decision, big or small, is ours. And to large measure, what we will be is determined by what we decide.

Says What It Means, Means What It Says

There are some who might accuse me of being simple-minded, but it seems that in reading the Scriptures, we have a tendency to make it more complicated than necessary. A friend of mine once wisely observed, “When you read the Bible, if the first sense makes good sense, don’t look for any other sense.”

Stating that in a slightly different way, time and experience have taught me that we can be confident in knowing the Bible says what it means, and it means what it says.

Yes, sometimes the Scriptures employ literary devices to communicate God’s message. There were times, for example, when Jesus told parables that weren’t about literal events, but they were stories to illustrate an underlying truth – pictures on which to hang important principles.

When I think about “says what it means, means what it says,” one of the first sections of the Scriptures that come to mind are the Proverbs. With 31 chapters, one can read a chapter of Proverbs daily and read them through 12 times during a calendar year. I can’t think of many better investments of time and attention.

Consider a verse a friend introduced me to many years ago, Proverbs 21:1 – “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” What this says to me is that our sovereign God even rules over the decisions made by people in authority. When presenting our case to someone, we can prayerfully trust the Lord will somehow intervene and guide in the midst of the decision-making process.

I’ve applied this principle and seen in work in many ways: Applying for a job; negotiating on a project; presenting a proposal to a board of directors; even calling a customer service department to protest a billing charge I felt was excessive or unfair.

Later in the same chapter of Proverbs, we’re told, “There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord” (Proverbs 21:30). From a human standpoint, we tend to fear – or at least defer to – those who hold positions of power to make decisions that could have a serious impact on our lives, for good or for ill.

Faith in God enables us to trust that whatever decision is made, it’s well within His will and plan for our lives. There were times when I didn’t receive job offers I felt well-qualified to get. Later, by utilizing the wonders of hindsight, I could see those opportunities never came because God knew something better was yet to be revealed.

I think of other examples that related to financial matters, health needs, even my education. You might remember the old TV show, “Father Knows Best,” but long before that, God was proving every day that truly He, as our Father, knows best.

Those times when we feel another person, or group of people, controls our future, it’s heartening to remember, as another translation expresses Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse, wherever it should go.” Trusting in Him means having confidence that nothing, and no one, can foil the plans and intentions He has for our lives. The Word of God says what it means – and it means what it says.

Values and Decision-Making

Decision-making can be both fun and frustrating. Some decisions are simple and inconsequential: what to eat for breakfast; what shirt or dress to wear; what color to paint the wall; what restaurant to select for an evening meal.

Other decisions carry considerable weight: what college to attend and what to study; what career to pursue; who to marry; how to manage your finances; how to budget your time; which people to associate with; even what house to buy, and where to live.

So while some decisions fall under the “I don’t care, you pick” category, others can truly prove to be life-changing – for good or for not so good. So how do we go about deciding on the more important choices in life? An insightful quotation I read recently offers some helpful advice.

Even in all its grandeur, Disney's
famed Cinderella's Castle rests
on its foundation for stability.

Almost everyone has heard of Walt Disney, the creative visionary whose dreams turned into live and animated movies, TV programming, music, and theme parks. But other members of his family made important contributions to the success of the Disney brand. One of them was the late Roy E. Disney, whose father, Roy O. Disney – Walt’s brother – was co-founder of The Walt Disney Company.

The younger Roy spent many years as a senior executive with the company. His quote in question: “When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” It’s a simple statement, but quite profound nonetheless.

Values the Disneys embraced through the years have guided them in developing such delightfully popular characters and projects as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy; “Mary Poppins”; TV’s Mickey Mouse Club, Disneyland and Walt Disney World; “Snow White”; “Toy Story,” Nemo, and a seemingly endless list of other entertainment classics.

In a sense, those values Roy Disney referred to served as the foundation for the Disney empire’s achievements many of us have enjoyed. But this is true not only for all things Disney, but also for any enterprise, whether a different kind of business or organization, a family, or even individuals. Making major decisions without the guidance of clearly established values typically leads to a murky result at best.

Jesus spoke about the importance of a foundation – the right foundation. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had the foundation of the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25).

He contrasted that with “a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7:26-27).

The passage says many who heard these words were amazed, since Jesus spoke with great authority, but surely there were some who dismissed what He had to say. They had no interest in doing what He said or following His teachings. Sadly – according to Jesus – the values they were choosing instead were the equivalent of building sand castles.

I’ve learned – as have many of my friends – that having clear values in fact does ease the decision-making process, especially for challenging matters. Do we dabble in the areas of temptation to which we know we’re susceptible? Do we pursue lofty goals that could prove detrimental to cherished relationships? Do we spend more than we can afford on things we want, resulting in becoming “servant to the lender,” as Proverbs 22:7 describes it? Do we devote time to unproductive diversions, at the expense of more important commitments?

We don’t need to become legalistic, placing a taboo on anything that hints at being fun. But as my friend Oswald Chambers often states in his devotional writings, even good things can be the enemy of things that are best for us.

So as we strive to clarify and then hold true to our values, as Roy E. Disney suggested, we can discover that making key decisions is much easier than we thought.