Make Your Decisions Wisely By Running Them Through Jesus

Word-Of-The-Day:  “Blessed (or Happy) are those whose help is (in or from) the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God.” (Psalm 146:5)

I usually can make good decisions on the fly, given the years I worked in stressful environments when answers were required quickly in order to complete military requirements – especially after 9/11 at US Central Command, responsible for actions within the Middle East.  ‘Can your folks accomplish this task?’ could not be answered with ‘let me get back to you tomorrow’, if the item to be accomplished had to be done before the plane flying to Qatar was leaving the day after.  Depending on the task, the answer was either, ‘Yes, we can’ or ‘No, we’ll need more time’ or ‘No, we don’t have the material needed’. 

Whatever the decision was, it had to be understood what the ramifications were.  Also, if the decision was yes, what level of manpower and time would it take to accomplish the task in time?  The more folks working on this one task would preclude other tasks from being accomplished.  I was very fortunate to have great individuals on a great team who could come and work together, and our folks often prepared in advance for such contingencies when urgent requests came upon us.   

The discernment to know how long certain tasks took, to know how to separate the urgent tasks from less important tasks, and set reasonable expectations kept us mostly out of the ire of our military and government customers, who knew of our outstanding track record of achieving our accomplishments on time. Discernment is a something that God provides His people that is sometimes overlooked or ignored by the Christian.  We make decisions every day that can affect us and the others around us.  Our decisions can have an everlasting impact on our lives, the lives of our loved ones, neighbors, friends, co-workers – anyone near to us.

There were many short prayers during this time in my life; ‘Lord, what are we going to do now?’ was often answered quickly, ‘Do this.’  Those items where I already knew the answer, it is attributed to the Lord that He had given the knowledge and the experience in order to make such snap decisions quickly. 

Often, after a decision was made, there was the ‘playback’, or the thoughts of lessons learned – what could we do to improve, what if we find that we didn’t completely answer the task given, or what did we not do in accomplishing the more urgent task.  Sometimes what seemed to be a good decision affected other things that were not expected, sometimes with negative consequences, and corrective actions had to follow to get everything back into compliance.

In secular science in the study of Chaos Theory, there is ‘the Butterfly Effect’, where if an ancestor of ours, say 1,000 years ago, had to decide to either kill a butterfly or let it go; what could be the ramifications on Earth, nature, and mankind as a result of that decision today.  That one butterfly allowed to live (or one in its linage) goes to pollenate a crop that over time becomes a leading food source, or a crop that poisons animals or people tribes into extinction; killing the butterfly precludes either consequence and sets up other possible outcomes. 

In a similar vein, a study by the mathematician Edward Lorenz took calculations of very minor air disturbances (wind blowing over a wave, for example), and found minute air disturbances could, over time, grow into hurricanes – or stop them from forming.  Decisions, big or little, can either escalate or remove opportunities or threats.

We may never know what our decisions now are going to do for our future; the good news is God knows!  Through Jesus, we can tap into God’s omniscience by prayer and reading His word.  As it reads in Psalm 146:5, Jesus is available to help us in all things, including decision-making.  Whether is buying a car, what to eat, or addressing the needs of others including the Lord so He can steer you into the decision you need to make.  What if the Lord doesn’t give you that direction?  Have Faith that when the decision is to be made, that He is with you and that you will make the right decision. 

Sometimes, for a while, it may seem that we may have made a bad decision, and we start having regrets.  Bad decisions are often right decisions when you look at it through the prism of time.  By not making an investment, you may have lost an opportunity to make a fortune but then again you may not have met your spouse at while spending that money at a store, for example.  Don’t regret past decisions; they were made with God’s knowledge and you would not be where you’re at today with the people you know today.

The biggest decision that one can make is to decide if Jesus can be your Savior and Lord.  This should be the easiest decision one can make because we know the outcome!  (Spoiler alert: In the end, God and His people WIN!!!)  But for many, it is a decision that many can’t make without going back and forth on (Joel 3:14).  Pray for those to receive the clarity they need to make the obvious choice – and best decision – in their lives.