Wednesday Devo

How to Make Big Decisions “Love God and do as you please.”—Augustine Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.—Psalm 37:4 “Love God and do as you please.” That is a motto that all of us should apply to our decision-making. Now for some of you, that is just not spiritual enough. It took me along time to realize that God is not playing hide and seek with his will. He doesn’t go hide it somewhere and then ask us to go find it. He has very clearly shown us in scripture where it is and how to know it. Through the past few years of working with youth, many have struggles when they graduate high school. They want to go to college but seem torn between deciding on where to go. They say, “ I really like these two schools but I want to make sure that what I decide is God’s will.” To this I would reply, “Are either of these choices blatantly sinful? Can you be salt and light in either of these places? Do you have a desire to please God? If it’s not sinful, if you can be salt and light, and if you have a desire to please God, then for just pick one and go. There is no reason to think that it would not be God’s will. Somewhere along the line we have picked up this notion that discovering the will of God is nearly impossible. We pray and pray and pray and pray and receive no clear signs of which direction to go or decision to make. Don’t misunderstand me, we need to always pray and seek God about decisions because we are sinners and need our pride and selfish desires to be revealed to us. But if our desires be Godly desires, what make us think that it would not be God’s will? God has called us to live holy lives, to love Him with our whole being, and to love our neighbors. He has called us to live lives that glorify him and that treasure him above all things. He has also called us to delight ourselves in him and that is when decision-making becomes much easier. If we are delighted with all that God is for us in Jesus, we are going to want to please him. And that means that our decisions are going to reflect our love for Him. How often do we wait for a feeling or sign before we act. God has given us his word and most of you who are reading this have several copies of it. One thing is certain; we will not know God’s will if we do not know his word. Don’t rely on feelings or signs. That churning in your stomach that you think may be a sign from God may only be the White Castle you had for supper last night. Our emotions and feelings are incredible, God-given gifts. But if you are not grounded in his word, they will lead you astray. Jesus did not entrust himself to man because he knew what was in man (John 1:24,25). Neither should we trust ourselves. The only place that we can trust is the Word of God. God’s word tells us that for those that delight in him, he gives them the desires that they have. These desires don’t come from ourselves, they come from God. How do you tell the two apart? Ask yourself these 5 questions. This is what I do now when I have to make a decision and want to make sure that it is a Godly one. 1. Is this decision grounded in scripture? 2. Is this sinful? 3. Is this wise? (Thanks Bert) 4. Does this decision reflect my Love for God? 5. Will this Glorify God? If the answers to these questions are godly answers, then I do just as Augustine said to do, “Love God and do as you please.” Some of you aren’t going to buy into this. This is going to sound way too unspiritual. The opposite is true. There is nothing more on target than delighting ourselves in God and making our decisions based on his word.