The Journey to Decision Making

Decisions, something we all have to make. They can be extremely tough and the pressure to make the right decision can eat us alive. If you are like me, you get consumed by the 'what ifs' and try to your hardest to think clearly yet your thoughts seem to be choked out by your emotions. It can be overwhelming if you want so badly to make the right decision, but aren't sure which that is. Then for those of us who love Jesus and desire to follow Him, we are faced with the question of what decision does He want me to make?

The tension begins.

I want to give you a glimpse right now into my life lately. Not to prove to you that I have this all figured out. No, I seriously do not have anything "figured out". I have had to make some hard decisions in the past few weeks, hard decisions and I found myself wrestling with myself and ultimately wrestling with God. However, God has been speaking to me about this area in my life, decision making, and I want to share with you the hope and truth He has so sweetly spoken to me. If this is applying to you too, I pray that it will help all of you in the tough position of making the "right" decision. Who doesn't want to make the right decision, right? and if you haven't experience this yet in your walk with God, I promise you one day you will, so I pray that this will speak you now and prepare your heart for when you are in this position.

Sometimes, and I know I do it all the time, we can over complicate things. When it comes to decision making and the journey it takes us on, sometimes we get distracted by the journey itself. Really we need to focus on why we are on the journey in the first place. God is desiring to speak to us and show us the way, but our own desire to control and understand come barreling in with a wave of emotions.

When you boil it all down, here is what it comes to...

1 Thessalonians 4:1
"Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more."

"Live in a way that pleases God". Seems pretty simple. It is.
If you love Jesus and want to follow Him I guarantee you that you also desire to live in a way that pleases God. Maybe your mind forgets that sometimes, but that doesn't mean its not true. Are you always thinking about how to breathe? No, but it is happening. "You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more." Paul is saying this too as he addresses the people in Thessalonica. They desired to please God and were living in that way, but Paul was telling them, pleading with them, to do more that pleases God. He was telling them, I believe, to focus more on how to please God more than anything. I am sure that the Christian people of Thessalonica had to make decisions, sometimes hard decisions, and it wasn't easy. The same is true now a days, which then usually upsets us and send us into a wrestling match with God. Why do we wrestle?

Wrestling with God happens when you aren't willing to please Him above yourself. Maybe you don't even want to please yourself, but you want to please others above pleasing God. If you are close to Jesus and have a relationship with Him you will feel this tension because your spirit wants one thing and your own mind wants another thing. This is not a bad thing, it is reality. It is what you do in your wrestling that can lead you down a bad or good path. God wants to use your wrestling to lead you to Himself, so that He can speak to you and bring you to where you need to be.  The question is, what do you do about it? This is what the Lord so clearly spoke to my weary heart.

ASK: HOW CAN I PLEASE YOU, GOD?
Then>>Listen.
This requires laying aside your desires and accepting what He says. We don't ask because we don't want to listen. We don't want to lose our "control" (although this a false sense of control because the Lord is always in control above us). We forget God is a good Father and only has our best in mind. (It just might not look the same in the process).

So, go ahead. Ask God how you can please Him and listen to what He has to say. Trust in Him. Trust in His love for you. Trust in His promises to take care of you, finish what He started and give you a hope and future. Let Him speak the truth to you in His sweet loving way. Then may you obey what He says, make the decision and walk into all that He has for you with no fear! It's not meant to be complicated at all, but requires trust in your Creator God and an open heart and ears.

I will leave you with this promise from your good, good Heavenly Father...
Isaiah 50:7 "Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. THEREFORE, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do His will. And I know that I will not be put to shame."