Making Godly Decisions, Biblical Principles for Life's Decisions

Making godly decision begins with the revelation that God has provided for us in his word, the Bible. As Christians, our desire is to make decisions that are consistent with God’s will, and if we want to know God’s will for our lives then we need to look no further than Scripture. In his excellent book on the topic of making decisions, Kirk Youngblood provides this counsel for those seeking God’s will in their lives:

“People always want to know God's will about those things the Bible doesn't really talk about (at least not directly). But the reality is that if we will be obedient to things God's word is clear about, it will take care of 99% of God's will for our lives. I believe that if we will focus on what we know for sure, the things that are uncertain will also fall in place. Where we should begin and seeking God's will is to do what he has already made clear to us.” (Free to be Wise, 39).

He is absolutely correct! Many Christians are prone to spend so much time focusing on the hidden will of God that they neglect the revealed will of God. This is a tendency that we are specifically warned about in Deuteronomy 29:29:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29, ESV)

How Does the Bible Help us make decisions?

The Bible must inform the decisions of our life if we want to make godly choices. This should be our commitment, but even with this commitment in place we are left with the the question, how exactly does the Bible inform our decision making process? The Bible certainly does not speak to our circumstances in a mystical way, as if there are hidden messages throughout the Scriptures that will tell me exactly what to do. We can’t turn to a random page in our Bible’s and expect to receive a personalized message for our situation. The Bible is not a Christian Ouija board! It can be tempting to search for circumstantial signs in order to find God’s hidden will for our lives, but it is vain (at best) to try to uncover what God has not revealed. Worse yet, our attempt to find some kind of spiritualized justification for the decisions we make is often an attempt to avoid responsibility for the result of our decisions. If I can point to some sign or providential door that made my decision for me, then it is not my fault if it goes bad.

Thankfully the reality is much simpler than that, and it provides us with objective truth by which we can make wise decisions! God’s word provides the framework for life that helps us to live our lives in a godly manner and make decisions that honor the Lord. Here is what this means practically:

• Sometimes Scripture specifically tells us what to do;

• Sometimes Scripture specifically tells us what not to do;

• Sometimes Scripture generally provides us with priorities to inform our decisions;

• Sometimes Scripture generally provides us with principles to inform our decisions;

• Sometimes Scripture allows us the freedom to exercise wisdom in our decisions.

In each way that the Bible addresses the decisions of our lives we have the responsibility to keep coming back to God’s word as the source of our wisdom.

How do we make wise decisions?

When we start with a biblical foundation for making wise decisions, we have an objective standard by which we can evaluate our own wisdom. This reality is the key to making use of the power of Scripture to make wise decision. Specifically, the objective standard of God’s word exposes our foolishness and encourages us to be wise as we use it to examine our hearts. As we turn to Scripture in order to examine our hearts, several questions can aid us in our pursuit of wisdom.

• What do I want to do? We need to be honest about our desires so that we can properly examine them. The heart can be deceitful (Jer 17:9), so our motives need to be honestly identified so that they can be accurately evaluated. At the same time, God uses the sanctified desires of a godly man to help direct his life (Ps 20:4). So, start by determining what you want and be honest about why you want it.

  
  

• Would any of my options violate the direct command of Scripture?If any of the options that you are considering disobeys the Bible then you can know for certain that it is not God’s will for your life. No matter how many pragmatic justifications you might be able to come up with in order to defend an action, if the Bible says not to do something you must obey God’s word.

  
  

• Am I viewing this decisions through an eternal or a temporal lens? The framework for view our decisions that comes to us from God’s word is eternal. All of our decisions must be considered in light of their eternal impact. We do not want to make decisions that are based on the value system of this world! We want to store up treasures in heaven (Mt 6:19-21).

  
  

• Would any of my options hinder or aid my ability and opportunity to glorify God?“Can I honor God if I do it?” “Can I honor God if I don’t do it?” The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, this truth must impact the decisions that w make (1 Cor 10:31).

• Can God bless the decision that I am about to make?I am not talking about a prosperity Gospel! I am simply suggesting that when you make a life-directing decision you should always ask the question, “is this something that God can bless?”We want to glorify God in our decisions, and we also want him to bless our decisions. This is why we must consider which choice will be most pleasing and blessed by the Lord.

• Does it violate my conscience? Simply put, if you do something that you think might be wrong it proves that you don’t care about doing the wrong thing. It is an act of unbelief in the righteous judgment of God to violate your conscience for pragmatic purposes (Rom 14:22-23).

• How would this decision impact my own sanctification?God’s will for your life is holiness/sanctification (1 Thess 4:3), which means that when you make decisions for your life that do not promote holiness you are violating God’s will. Conversely, when you prioritize personal holiness you have “found” God’s will for your life.

• How would this decisions impact my family? Would any of my options hinder my ability to fulfill my responsibilities to my family? (1 Tim 5:8; Exod 20:12) Am I in any way placing a burden on my family that I should be bearing myself?

• How would this decision impact my service to the Lord? Since my entire life is supposed to be a living sacrifice of spiritual service to God (Rom 12:1-2), it would be inappropriate for me to make decisions that hinder my useful to the Lord. When we make decision we must do a cost-benefit analysis on how that decision would affect our ministry.

• How would this decisions impact my church?Does this promote or hinder peace and edification in the body (Rom 14:19-20)? Would this cause confusion, offense for other Christians (Rom 14:1-9, 21; 1 Cor 10:32)? Would this decision take me away from a good church and move me into an area without a solid church? The Lord has made our relationship to the church a priority in our lives for the purpose of discipleship and so that we can receive the means of graces in our lives. We must honor this truth in our decisions.

• How would this decision impact those who are under my influence? Would any of my options hinder my witness to unbelievers (1 Cor 10:31)? Would any of my options cause others in my life to stumble? We must uphold the principle of love in our decisions.

Conclusion

As Kirk Youngblood reminds us in the title of his book, one of the most important principles for decisions making is the fact that Christians are “free to be wise.” In other words, God has given us his word as a guide and he has also given us freedom within the parameters of his word to make our own wise decision. A wonderful example of this is found in the life of Abraham. In Genesis 13:14-16 God made a promise to Abraham,

“The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” (Genesis 13:14–16, ESV)

All the land that Abraham could see was promised to him by the Creator, but God never told Abraham where he should live and how he should provide for his household. Within this vast area there must have been a lot of options for a place to live, some better than others. So where was Abraham supposed to pitch his tents, water his herds, and provide for his family? Here is what God told him,

“Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” (Genesis 13:17, ESV)

In other words, God did not tell him where to settle as long as it was within the land that was promised to him. In the same way, God has not told us what to do with each detail of our lives. Instead, he has given us the truth of his word and as long as we stay within that “land” he will bless our decisions.