June 29, 2002
Making
Decisions
Question to be addressed:
How do we go about making
decisions?
Discussion:
- This topic has very much to do with what we talked
about last week, prayer. Why am I saying this? Because, an
important part of the decision-making process is prayer.
- First, let’s talk a little bit about what this
process is not.
- It’s not praying about something and waiting
for a “little voice” to tell you what to do.
- It’s not praying for something and opening
the Bible at random hoping for a verse that would point you in the right
direction. Funny (kind of) story about this – Proverbs 30:2.
- It’s not looking for “signs” that confirm or
infirm what you would like to do.
- A couple of examples that you might find useful as
far as supporting what I just said can be seen in Paul’s epistles.
- In Philippians 2:25, he says: “I have
thought it necessary (or reckoned) to send to you Epaphroditus.” He does
not say that he had a vision to do that (although that happened too) but
looking at the circumstances and the needs he made a decision that he
was confident was pleasing to the Lord. (J. Piper)
- In 1 Corinthians, he says (talking to the
Corinthians who had been squabbling among themselves): “Can it be that
there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the
brotherhood?” (1 Corinthians 6:5). He expects spiritual wisdom to be
employed in the ordinary course of life when problems arise. (J. Piper)
- Making important decisions does require spiritual
wisdom. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that it requires seeing
things from God’s perspective.
- Most of us would prefer to have everything set up
very nicely and in very concrete terms as to what we should do. Like I
mentioned last time, we might think it would be wonderful if there were a
“Guide to Choosing a College” book in the Bible. Precise and
easy-to-understand instructions we can follow without thinking too much
about them.
- Q: What are we to do when that kind of
instructions cannot be gotten?
- Here are a couple of analogous situations that
might shed some light on where I’m trying to get to.
- Many of us would rather have our parents tell us
exactly what they want us to do, right? Oftentimes though, they just
tell us “Well, I’m not going to tell you that you cannot do that, but I
want you to use your judgment in deciding whether you should do that.”
(In many cases, that’s a clear indication that they don’t want you to do
that particular thing, and experience shows they’re usually right.)
- Another example, a servant might like it if his
master told him what to do precisely. But a faithful servant
knows what the master would have him do just because he knows his master
well.
- In things that are not clearly addressed in the
Word, we are in the same situation. We should be able to do what the
Master would have us do just because we know Him so well.
- Q: How do we do that though? A few
ingredients:
- spending time in the Word
- prayer
- corporate worship
- reading about His work throughout history
- When you’re faced with a tough decision you
shouldn’t be asking yourself “What would Jesus do?” because even if you
did know for sure you would have to be perfect to follow in His
footsteps, but rather “What would God have me do?”
- Q: What does it mean to see things from God’s
perspective?
- Well, it means to set up goals that are sanctioned
by the Word. What is God’s purpose since the very beginning of creation?
His purpose has been that His creation (His chosen people, in particular)
might worship and praise Him and have fellowship with Him.
- One question that automatically comes to mind when
you have to choose between options is the following:
- “Which of these options will put me in a situation
where I will be better placed to serve God and extend the reach of His
Kingdom?”
- or “Will this endeavor help me be a better
Christian?”
- or “Will this option enable me to shine Christ’s
light before unbelievers?”
- or (ultimately) “Is this going to bring glory to
God?”
- This would be principle number one: Which of
these courses of action would bring most glory to God and would best
enable me to serve Him?
- If there is a tie, we move on with other
considerations although principle number one should be treated most
seriously.
- The next thing you can do is to ask the advice
of your family – i.e., your parents (your siblings might be just as
clueless as you are). Since they’re your family you know for sure that
they (kind of J) have to care about and
for you. This implies that they want whatever is best for you. Of course,
this does not make their opinion infallible but it should definitely be a
strong factor in your decision.
- Once you have done this, the next thing you
should do is to ask the advice of more experienced Christian people. And
you can usually tell who these people are.
- One quick note here, knowledge of one particular subject
does not make someone an expert on life. That is a terrible
fallacy that you can see in action on the news pretty often. “Dr.
So-and-So, Jr., with a PhD in Computer Science believes that the crisis
in the fast-food industry (totally hypothetical example) is caused by
people’s lack of familiarity with the UNIX operating system.” “Ooooh,
that must be it then! He’s a doctor after all! These people tend to be
very smart!” No doubt, he might be brilliant but in things that he has no
idea about he’s just as clueless as I am. Knowledge of one subject or of
facts does not make one an expert on all things. (Romanians have a
special status here. They are born with knowledge about everything from
carpet cleaning to building a rocket. J)
- Getting back to our topic, though, you can
tell who these people that you could ask are. People who have been
through similar situations (it might be that they are doctors and
such!) and could give you some kind of insight. At least you might be
able to learn from their mistakes. (There’s a saying: “Whoever does not
learn from his own mistakes is foolish, but whoever does not learn from others’
mistakes is a complete idiot.”)
- If you have reached, this point you have accumulated
enough information (and even wisdom) to be able to move towards a
decision. Before that though, you do not have to forget the practical
side of things. That is just as important!
- I mentioned the example about going to school in
Alaska or Texas and I’m sure you can come up with many more. Or if it’s a
job that we’re talking about you might want to look at how the company
has done over the last few years in the stock market. Is it a strong
company or is it likely to have problems?
- These aspects might seem like really minute but
they are definitely important. Example: when I changed jobs about a year
ago, I sat down and made two lists (I’m fond of lists, what can I say?),
one for each company. In each list, I put advantages as +1 and
disadvantages as –1. After I went through the list, I added them up and
the one with a greater number won! I’m sure they’re still talking about
the close finish! J You get the idea,
however.
- When it comes to certain decisions, the practical
aspect might eliminate a great deal of the options and could be one of
the earlier steps in the process.
- One aspect that is comprised in the practical
aspect we’ve mentioned is made up of your preferences as well.
- You’re not going to consider going to medical
school if you faint at the sight of blood. And you’re not going to go
study computer science if you still have doubts about working the
microwave (although here there are exceptions; you know who we (you)
are! J). And you’re definitely not going into public
relations if you have a speech disability (again you know we (you) are! J).
- We have looked at four principles:
- First and foremost, look at the decision
from God’s perspective. And how do we do that? By spending time in the
Word, praying, and worshipping our most awesome God so that we get to
know Him better and get to be more like Christ so that our minds thus
renewed might see God’s perspective.
- Second, ask you family.
- Third, find an experienced Christian who you
know might be able to give you some insight into the problem.
- Fourth, look at the practical aspects and
consequences.
- Last, but definitely not least, look
at the decision from God’s perspective.