July 25 2018 – Click here to listen
When you make important decisions and you are a Christian you take it to the Lord in prayer, sometimes the answer comes to you immediately and you are very clear on what course of action that you need to pursue; other times it is all but impossible to discern the will of God. There is an old gospel song with lyrics that indicate that we must “Trust and obey” for there is no other way to be happy. How in the world are we to trust and obey when we do not know what we are to obey to be within the will of God? Arghhhhh!
I have said many times that I just wish God would sit me down and say, “Here is the plan for today”. Well that is not going to happen so how can we understand God when He does not directly speak to us? If the Bible directly addresses this question, I am not aware of it. So left to my own wiles I would say that first I would ask myself what would Jesus do in this situation and if we follow His guide we will be totally honest and maintain integrity; however using this methodology it may be exceedingly difficult to discern His will for our life in some matters. For example perhaps you are considering a career change. Should you do it or not? What would Jesus do? Well Jesus would not personally pursue a secular career, so we cannot compare our situation to His unless we are considering the ministry. It is obvious that question, (What would Jesus do?), in itself is not enough for every decision, except in blatantly obvious situations such as we know God would not want us to sell pornography or something contrary to His laws.
Of course we should pray about it, but what if you have done that and still do not feel that you have a clear answer? I believe when it reaches this point one should rely on their heart and peace of mind. Can you honestly say you have peace of mind about it and that you are sure that it is the right decision? If not, then don’t do it. The problem is that we usually think we know what we want to do. We pray for the outcome we want and when we do not get the answer we want we attribute it to God not answering our prayers. Hey sometimes the answer is no. God has answered but His answer is NO. We should accept that answer and move on and wait and see what wonderful things are going to happen that God knows about, but are hidden from us.
This concept is familiar to me in a small way. Often employees question my decisions and particularly my no’s, but they do not have access to the same information that I have as CEO. I know things they do not know and if they knew what I knew the decision would probably make a lot more sense to them. (Probably!). At any rate I guess it boils down to your internal peace of mind meter’. Listen carefully to what God is whispering, be patient, and most of all have faith and trust and obey. If you cannot make the decision with peace of mind the answer is probably no, or at the very least delay the decision for a while as you try to ascertain a more clear path.
Romans 14:19
Therefore let us pursue the things
which make peace and the things
by which one may edify another.