Choose - Living a life of making good and godly decisions"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15 (NASB) We all make decisions. We all avail ourselves of our God-given ability to make choices. In fact we can’t live without making choices, conscious living requires it. We usually do not make decisions out of thin air, we all have some decision making grid, some internal mechanism that influences the choices we make. Our personality, culture, values, circumstances, experiences, beliefs, ideals, fears, and other factors all contribute to our decision making, to what we do with the choices we have.Most of us have a mixed record in regard to the choices we have made. The spectrum ranges from great, occasionally brilliant, to outright stupidity, even evil. It is not difficult to figure out in which direction God wants us to go when we make choices. Now there certainly are people who are not Christians who have a record of making good choices and vice versa the history of Christianity is filled with people who have made dumb and too often outright evil decisions.The most fundamental decision every one of us will ever make is the choice we make about God, not about the religion we were raised in, not our personal opinion concerning spiritual things, but the One true and living God. The Creator God through whom we live and breathe, who gives us the freedom to make choices, and who will hold us accountable for each and every decision we make (all decisions have consequences). This is what Joshua confronted the ancient Hebrews with, and this is what every generation is confronted with by God himself.Serving God always begins with a choice. That initial choice must then be followed by life of decision making that is marked by a desire to serve, to please, to honor, to glorify God. For that to become a reality we have to acquire a decision making grid, a choosing mechanism, a heart and mind that consistently makes good and goodly decisions. And since we are ever capable of being stupid and egocentric, as well as sinful and evil, we should not expect godly decision making to be automatic but rather an acquired skill and habit.I have found the following to be essential in my pursuit of wanting to be someone who consistently and habitually makes good and goodly decisions:
- Acknowledging God before and in everything – Joshua 5:13-15; Proverbs 1:7, 9:10
- Affirming decisions through true prayer – Joshua 7:7-10; Matthew 6:9-10; Philippians 4:6-7; James 1:5-8
- Adhering to God’s Word (the Bible) – Joshua 1:7-8; Psalm 119-105
- Acquiring wisdom (habitual wisdom) – Deuteronomy 34:9; Proverbs 4:7; 2:1-22
- Awareness/being aware of God’s activity – Joshua 2:8-11; 1 Chronicles 12:32, John 5:17, 19
- Accessing wise and godly counsel – 1Kings 12:8; Proverbs 1:5, 15:22
- Applying faith (what I know to be true; trust) – Joshua 1:8-9; 6:1-5; 2 Timothy 4:8
- Adding to faith - three lists: 2 Peter 1:5-11; Galatians 5:19-25; James 3:13-18
- Avoiding - pride, anger/bitterness, self/I, impatience, impulsiveness, foolishness/stupidity, greed, sin, temper, cultural/group pressures, worldliness, prayerlessness, temptation, indecision, … Joshua 7:19-26,
- Affection change (what I love, cherish, and value) – Joshua 7:21, 1 John 2:15-17, Mark 12:28-34; Matthew 5:1-16, 6:19-21
- Admitting and repenting (quickly) – Joshua 7:1-12,19-26; Isaiah 1:18-20
- Acting in obedience – Joshua 1:7-9, Matthew 7:24-27; Romans 16:19
George Mueller’s outline of how he discerned God’s will and made decisions also has been very helpful to me, for many years I have carried a copy with me:1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the knowledge of what His will is.2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If I do so I make myself liable to great elusions.3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides me at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.6. Thus, (1) through prayer to God, (2) the study of His Word, and (3) reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. [1]To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans