Decision Making David D. Sellnow Northwestern Publishing House Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Cover image: Getty Images Third printing, 1997 Second printing, 1997 Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTER NATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise except for brief quotations in reviews, without prior permission from the publisher. Northwestern Publishing House 1250 N. 113th St., Milwaukee, WI 53226-3284 2009 by Northwestern Publishing House www.nph.net Published 2009 Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-8100-2197-6
Contents The Freedom to Decide Is a Blessing... 11 Bold Moves Are Made With Bold Faith... 10 Make the Most of Every Opportunity... 22 Things to Keep in Mind When Making Up Your Mind............ 33
chapter 1 The Freedom to Decide Is a Blessing Father knows best: he lets us choose Four children in the same family each approached decision making differently. The oldest was hesitant. She avoided thinking about big decisions, hoping (it seemed) that her parents eventually would step in and decide for her. Her sister was her opposite always impulsive. Decisions didn t trouble her because she rarely paused to think about options. If something appealed to her, interested her, or intrigued her, she jumped at it. Questions could come later. The brother in the family attached momentous importance to even the minutest choices. Spending Grandma s gift money at the store was a torturous chore. He agonized in the aisles of toys and games and often came home emptyhanded because he just could not decide. (Meanwhile, his savings account grew!) The youngest child also thought too much about her decisions but usually after the decision had been made. She d continue to wonder if she d made the best choice. If 1
2 she was excused from a music lesson because of a sports practice, she fretted over what her music teacher thought of her. And if she was excused from sports for the sake of music, she feared her coach s disapproval. These children, with their varied emotions and assorted approaches to the decision-making process, all shared one thing in common. They were blessed with parents who entrusted them with a measure of independence, who let them work out some small and even some big decisions on their own. Mom and Dad did not dictate, This is what you will do! If there was no wrongdoing involved, the children were allowed to make up their own minds. Not that the parents failed to provide input; they talked about possible decisions and their ramifications. But they always nudged the youngsters to evaluate the options on their own and learn from their mistakes. In the process, the children developed a sense of judgment and grew in maturity and responsibility. God our Father deals with his children in a similar way. He does not spell out for us the decisions we should make in every detail of our lives. I suppose it would be easier for us, in a sense, if he did. If we awoke each morning and a to do list from God appeared in the form of a sticky note on the bathroom mirror, we would never need to wonder whether to keep running the bases in Little League or to try our hand (well, our feet) at soccer. There d be no struggle when it came time to choose a college and a major. We would not have to wrestle with questions about our career or when and where to relocate. If God gave us lists that were detailed enough, we d never even have to look in the mirror and wonder, Does this shirt go with these pants? Yet, if God directed us that narrowly and explicitly, we would never learn to think for ourselves. Nor would we get practice in putting our faith into action; we d only be conditioned to do as we were told. We d be unable to grow in any of the qualities God says are good, such as love, joy, knowl-
edge, patience, perseverance, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22,23 and 2 Peter 1:5-7). Our heavenly Father, who gives every good gift and who always knows what is right, has chosen to give us choices. The freedom to decide is indeed a blessing. Slaves of sin have no freedom of choice This brief booklet is going to concentrate on the choices we make as Christians, giving some thought to our decision-making processes. But before proceeding in that direction, in this first chapter let s pause to appreciate what a lovely, liberating gift we have from God in our Christian freedom the fact that we can decide and that our choices can be good. We do not naturally possess such wonderful liberty. On the contrary, our original position, along with the rest of humanity, was chained helplessly in sin. Martin Luther labeled our situation the bondage of the will. The apostle Paul described this bondage in stern, stark terms: I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature (Romans 7:18). Jesus himself spoke just as bluntly: I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin ( John 8:34). If not for Jesus entrance into our lives, we would have no ability to choose anything or do anything but continue to sin. That is the human condition. At the beginning of history, human beings made a fateful choice to go against God, challenging God s command and forgetting his promises (Genesis 3). Ever since, human nature has been stained by sin, and with sin came an awful imprisonment. In our natural state of sin, we have no freedom to make spiritual decisions. We are trapped in everything that is wrong. No matter what decisions we make, we don t get any closer to God. Even our best decisions and actions are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Our understanding is darkened, 3
and we lurch through life as if blind and senseless, futilely groping for a way we can never find (Isaiah 59:10). We are unspiritual and cannot accept anything that is truly spiritual (1 Corinthians 2:14). We don t want anything to do with God, and even if we did, we couldn t do anything about it. The Bible sums up our sinful condition in these words: The mind of sinful man is death.... The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God (Romans 8:6-8). That is what we were, where we stood. We were incapable of choosing a way out of our predicament. However, God acted to create the way for us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6). His decision, not our own, brought us to life. God describes us as his children, born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband s will, but born of God (John 1:13). When we were dead in our sins, God made us alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5; Colossians 2:13). 4 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free Now that we are alive and in God, clothed with Christ and led by the Spirit, everything has changed for us. Knowing the truth, we are set free ( John 8:32). Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). Not only has God set us free from sin, he has freed us to be his own, to live under him in his kingdom, and to serve him in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Since we ve been reborn by God s Spirit, we indeed can walk in such a way as to keep in step with the Spirit. We can make good and godly decisions, and God trusts us to do so. He does not baby us; he wants us to be adults in our thinking (1 Corinthians 14:20). As people who belong to God in
Christ, having the freedom to make good decisions is part of our spiritual maturation process. Sometimes Christians can be confused about their freedom. I ve heard some, wanting to confess their faith in God s power and providence, profess something that borders on fatalism. An unmarried young man said, When the time is right, God will bring into my life the woman he has in mind for me. Meanwhile, he s afraid to ask the girl next door out on a date. A college sophomore struggled to select a major. She mused, I wish God would give me a sign about which direction he wants me to take. The fact that she has outstanding acumen for science and mathematics doesn t seem to signify any possibilities to her. Devout disciples of Christ sometimes talk as though how they follow Christ has all been foreordained by God. They think God has predetermined every step they are to take, and they take great pains to figure out which way God s will is leading them in any given situation. One time, a woman who was studying with our church s lay evangelist pleaded for an answer to a question that was consuming her: How am I to know what God s will is for me? What do you mean? the lay evangelist asked. She put two pens on the table. Which of these two pens does God want me to pick up, the blue one or the red one? She was serious. Every day she was full of dismay, wondering what God wanted her to do in even the smallest matters. Frequently she became frozen in inaction. And when she made a decision, she continued to agonize over it, wondering if she had chosen wisely. The evangelist was baffled by her bewilderment and came back to the church office, wondering, What should I have told her? I would have told her that God doesn t care which pen you use, I replied. I d say, Just pick up either pen and write 5
a letter to your son, saying that you want him to have your grandsons baptized! I didn t mean to sound flippant. In further meetings, we helped her concentrate on those aspects of God s will that he has made known to us such as that he wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4); that he says, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them (Matthew 19:14); and that he wants parents (and grandparents) to bring up children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4; 2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15). We urged her to stop her undue worrying about decisions in matters where God has not revealed his will to us. Indeed, we can rejoice in each day s decisions, glad that God gives us freedom to make such decisions ourselves not just which pen to use but which apartment to rent or home to buy, which car to drive or bus to use, etc. We know God will guide us in ways that will prove a blessing to us and to others, but we dare never let this fact paralyze us from moving forward in freedom. If we think we are not free in such decisions under God, we can become hampered by self-inflicted distress and paralysis of activity, rather than leaping into action and service. 6 We walk in blessing all the way As we make our day-to-day decisions, we can have calm confidence that God will be with us whatever we decide. He says to us as he did to his people long ago, Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it (Isaiah 30:21). God won t be saying, Stop! You should have gone left! or Whoa! You were supposed to turn right! As we walk in faith and trust God s promise to guide us, he will bless us on whatever path we choose to use. As God s people, we always keep his words in mind. We always strive to do things in line with his clear commands, which we know to be his will. As we do this, the promise with which the
Lord reassured Joshua stands as reassurance for us as well: Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go ( Joshua 1:9). Paul s mission work carries vivid examples of how God blesses decisions by his faithful people. At times God told Paul exactly where he wanted mission work to be done. For instance, on one trek around the Mediterranean, Paul decided to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus blocked him. And through a vision, the Lord called Paul and Silas to Macedonia instead (Acts 16:6-10). Yet such direct pointers from heaven were relatively rare. Generally, Paul made his own plans. In one case, one of Paul s decisions was fiercely debated. Paul and Barnabas had worked together on an initial mission endeavor, and a ministry apprentice named Mark had accompanied them. But partway through their journey (which we call Paul s first missionary journey), Mark abandoned the team and went home. When Paul and Barnabas were planning another gospel-sharing tour, Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him (Acts 15:37,38). They disagreed vehemently, and in the end decided to split up. Barnabas took Mark and headed for Cyprus. Paul picked Silas as his missionary companion and went through Syria and Cilicia. And guess what? God blessed both efforts. Paul s journey brought strength to recent converts and brought in many more converts. We re not expressly told the results of Barnabas and Mark s work, but we do know Barnabas helped Mark become a valuable servant in the Lord s mission field. Mark later became a close companion of Peter, who referred to him as my son Mark (1 Peter 5:13). Mark wrote an inspired account of Jesus life (the gospel of Mark), and, in the end, was very helpful to Paul too (2 Timothy 4:11). Barnabas decision and Paul s decision were both good decisions. 7
Before he ascended to heaven, Jesus promised his disciples, Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20). The proof of that promise was evident in the efforts of Paul, Silas, Barnabas, and Mark. The same Lord Jesus also watches over our lives and efforts as we live and work in his name. He lets us decide on which street or avenue we will carry on our lives, and he will bless us with his presence in every godly direction we choose to pursue. Let s talk about this Answers to these questions can be found at www.nph.net/familylife. Locate the booklet you are reading, and you will find a link to access the answers. 1. What happened to the human race when we became guilty of sin? Compare Genesis 1:27 with Genesis 5:3, noting what had happened between those events. 2. Read Genesis 6:5-7. How deeply did mankind s fall into sin affect people s ability to think and do godly things? 3. Since human nature has been so deeply affected by sin, as the Scriptures say, what would you expect to be the normal decision-making pattern for people who have not been redeemed and restored to God? (Give examples.) 4. What kinds of decisions make you struggle to do the right thing or make you feel pulled in sinful directions? 8 5. The booklet talked of a woman paralyzed by indecision while she could have been doing specific things on
behalf of her grandchildren s spiritual well-being. Think about your own life. Are there good things you could be doing but that you ve been avoiding or ignoring? Can you make a plan to put those good things into action? 9