Choosing God before we have to Choose

Making decisions is just a part of life.  What you're going to wear or to eat are among a hundred other much more important choices face us daily.  Some decisions, like checking your Facebook page, are more superficial and relatively unimportant.  While other decisions, like who to marry or what your career will be, are more significant and life-determining decisions.

Because making decisions is just a part of life, it is no wonder that the Bible speaks quite directly to how we are to decide and choose.  What is interesting is that Scripture speaks of decision making in both a macro and a micro level, indicating that God is concerned with the minutiae of our lives as much as He is with the "bigger" things.

Most importantly, God wants us to seek Him and His guidance when facing decisions in our lives (Psa. 37:5; Jer. 6:16; 33:3).  In this way, godly decision making begins before decisions are made.  While this may seem obvious, consider the effect: if we pre-decide to commit ourselves to God's will before we have to make decisions, when the time comes for us to make the decision we will be more likely to make the right decisions.

Conversely, if we waver before we actually face the various available choices, then when the time comes for us to make decisions, we will likely be distracted from God's purposes by our own passions and desires.  Remember, the enemy lurks in waiting to devour (1 Pet. 5:8).  He, Satan, knows exactly how to tempt us away from God, so that when we stand at the crossroads of decision making we will not choose God's will but we will follow our fleshly desires that lead down the wide road of destruction.

Instead, we must determine which road we will choose to take long before we come to the fork of deciding.  In this way, we will be on-guard against being led astray.  Pre-deciding to follow Christ also helps to keep us focused on God and His will for our lives well before we are forced to make decisions.  Again, God is as concerned with being the guider of small decisions as He is with big ones.  Because of this, we should never grow weary of seeking His counsel, whether regarding what to eat for breakfast or when to make a career change.  Let us then seek after God first in all things so as to live in the center of His will!

Overcoming Temptations with the Word

There was nothing odd about this particular evening in the Davidson household.  Dad had worked a hard day at his job while Mommy had been home with their three children all day, doing the various things that three kids, ages 10 months to 5 years, demand.  It was dinner time and the couples' eldest, Jenna, was being naughty, throwing food across the table and hitting her little brother.  Finally, Mommy had had enough and sent Jenna to her room for the rest of the night, minus dessert.

A few hours later, well-after the dishes were done and the other children had been put to bed, Mommy went to tuck little Jenna in and kiss her goodnight.  Mommy walked into her five-year-old's room to see her daughter sobbing on her bed, looking sad and defeated.  Jenna looked up at Mommy and, with swollen eyes, asked: "Why do we do bad things, Mommy?"

Mommy, in as comforting tone as she could, answered, "Honey, the devil sometimes tells us to do the wrong things.  We need to listen to God to do the right things." To which a sobbing Jenna replied in tears, "But He just doesn't talk loud enough!"

Could we not all empathize with Jenna?  Often we know that what we are doing is wrong but the voice of the tempter, Satan, can seem so much louder than the voice of truth.  Temptations are something that is common to every human.  In fact, even our Lord and Savior, Jesus, faced severe temptations (Heb. 2:18, 4:15), as chronicled in Matt. 4:1-11, and Luke 4:1-13.

Jesus, following His baptism, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness.  After forty days of fasting and prayer, He is hungry but spiritually ready.  At this moment, Satan comes to Jesus and tempts Him thrice.  In each of Satan's ploys, he supports his temptations with Scripture, giving them the appearance of truth.  However, Jesus is not detoured, He overcomes everyone of Satan's temptations with Scripture that is applied expertly.  Two things stand out in this account that are instantly applicable to us.

The first is the need for recognition of interpretive heresy.  Satan supported his temptations with hermeneutical finesse that made each of his temptations seem not only acceptable but even condoned by the Word of God.  Notice, then, that Satan's voice sounds like truth though it is actually spurious lies.  Understanding and acknowledging the way that a counterfeit of Satan attempts to appear as a truth of the Lord is the first step to overcoming the temptations.

The second thing in this regard deals with Jesus' response to Satan's seductions.  Jesus counters with Scripture.  The difference between Jesus' usage and Satan's can be summarized as interpretive methodology.  While Satan pulled verses out of context to support his position, Jesus took the passages in context and applied from that context.  In this way, it can be easily concluded that Satan's application was wrong and Jesus' right, thus indicating that not every hermeneutic has the same worth. In fact, some interpretations may even be, dare we say, wrong.

Getting back to the sincere concern of Jenna, who fell to her temptations because, as she claimed, God doesn't speak loudly enough.  Jesus shows that hearing God's voice and responding to temptations in reliance upon His voice is directly related to how dependent we are on the Word and how committed we are to proper interpretive methodologies.  Needless to say, this requires disciplined and diligent study that is guided by a dedication to acceptable interpretations.  We should then work hard to interpret the Word the way it is intended to be, so that we can overcome every temptations of the enemy!

Making Decisions in Light of the Lord

Decision making is a necessary part of life.  One can scarcely go a single day without having to make significant if not life-altering decisions.  Because choices abound and overwhelm, having a system in place for making godly and wise decisions is of great importance.  Luckily, we are not without guidance in this regard as the Bible offers clear teaching to help us.

At the onset, the pertinent word in reference to decision making is dependence.  For our decision making to be godly, we must depend on God.  Decision making dependence happens before the decisions are made when we are sorting through possibilities and choices.  At this point, the pre-decision stage, we need to rely on the Lord to help us to discern the way that we should go.

The Lord, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, has this to say, "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls (Jer. 6:16)."  The Lord says more, speaking through the prophet Haggai, "Give careful thought to your ways (Hag. 1:5)."  God wants us to be prudent and wise when facing decisions.  Evenmore, He helps us out by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, who acts as our Counselor (John 14:16-17).

Because the Holy Spirit is to be our inner source of compulsion when facing choices, there is a devotional element to decision making.  In essence, our dependence on God at the front end of decision making comes down to relying on the Holy Spirit to guide our way and the faith that He will protect and keep us before and after our decisions have been made.

In the end, it is God who establishes our paths and keeps the sure (Pro. 16:9), which should cause us to trust in Him and commit to Him to secure our way (Pro. 3:5-6; Psa. 37:5).  The biblical account is unified and clear in this regard: before we make decisions we should depend on God for guidance and clarity to make wise and godly decisions while after we make decisions we should be faithful in depending upon the Lord to keep, straighten, and secure our paths.  Let us then seek the Lord for direction and depend on Him in faith to establish and secure every step we take!