Rev. Richard P. Smith
Philippians 4:4-9
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Life is replete with moments and occasions when we have to make key, if not critical, decisions. For these times, let me share four guideposts for making wise, good, and God-grounded decisions.
First Of All, Of Course, We Pray
The Apostle Paul, in our scripture text this morning, put it this way: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Some years ago, our daughter Leanne was fretting about two baby birds who had fallen out of their nest onto their front yard. Leanne has a huge heart for all creatures and she was really troubled as to what to do. She didn’t want to touch them for fear the mother would ignore or neglect them. She did see the mother bring them a worm at one point, but then fly away. As she’s trying to decide how to help, our grandson, Grayson, then 7, says to Leanne, “Mom, all we can do now is pray.”
Well, there are those times in life when we’ve done everything we can and all we can do is pray; no doubt about it. Those times when we say, “All I can do is pray and leave it to God.”
However, in our journey of discernment prayer must not be the concluding part; it must be the beginning part. We don’t end with prayer; we should begin with prayer.
Now you know as well as I do that God is not going to promise us absolute clarity for our decisions or make the decision for us. But there are three things which happen every time we pray which help us as we face the challenging and complex decisions of life. We receive wisdom; we receive strength; we receive assurance that God is with us.
We Let Reason Guide Us
You’ve heard me say many times that our intellectual faculties, our reasoning abilities are a gift from God; a spiritual asset. Remember that Jesus said that we are to love God with heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Clearly, to love God with our minds is to use our minds; to apply our intellect; to employ reason.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, once said: When you endeavor to exclude reason out of religion, don’t presume you are promoting the cause of God…You see, reason directs us in every point of faith and practice and with regard to every branch of inward and outward holiness.
Now the issue comes when we frail human beings tend to rationalize our supposedly rational decisions. We are most capable of rationalizing our decisions and claiming this as reasonable. How do we know for sure that the decision is reasonable, truly grounded in wise thinking, and not just a rationalization of our desires?
Well, it’s simple. We ask someone. We ask that person whom we trust; that person who is spiritually mature and who will be honest with us; that person who will answer faithfully and wisely our question, Does this really make sense? Such persons serve as valuable conduits for discerning whether what we think is a reasonable thing to do, the right thing to do, really seems to be from God; really seems to be good and wise.
We Discern If There Is A God Tug On Our Heart
Now while reason is a key means for discerning the right decision, we cannot ignore the way God sometimes just tugs on our hearts, pulls on our soul, speaks to our spirit. Some might call this intuition and perhaps that’s appropriate. One definition of intuition I really like is, Your heart knows things your mind can’t explain. Another one is, Intuition is seeing with the soul.
In essence, I’m simply talking about that tug on your heart, that voice in your soul, which won’t go away and which seems to be calling your toward a certain decision, a certain action, down a particular path.
I can tell you that my personal call to ministry was initially just a tug on my spirit; a feeling that wouldn’t do away; an emotional feeling that God wanted me to do something. It took my pastor in Milan, Tennessee to help me understand what it was. There were no bells and whistles; no mountain top experience; no dramatic encounter with Jesus like Paul on the road to Damascus. No, just an unrelenting pull and an ongoing voice.
Sometimes we just need to keep this in mind…God can tug at our hearts so that we feel truly led, compelled to a certain decision.
We Discern How Our Decision Affects Others
Many of the decisions we have to make affect other people. We have a responsibility to ask ourselves how the decisions we make or are about to make will affect those who are dearest to us, those for whom we have some responsibility. It is not appropriate to make decisions which greatly impact the lives of those who are nearest to us without both taking them into consideration and in some way involving them in the discussion.
One marriage and family therapist says there are three Cs to keep in mind as you feel led toward a certain decision and as you contemplate how it will affect others…consult, converse, consider. Consult and converse with those to be affected as much as you can. Consider their feelings; how it will impact their life. Key decisions affecting those who matter to us most should never be solo decisions.
When we make serious decision in life which affect others and do not include them in some way in that decision, then our decision is a selfish one; a self-centered one; even if it’s the right one.
