God’s Words For Your Decision Making

1. Tough Decision

What should you do when you have to make a tough decision in your life. What if you are asked to make a decision regarding a surgical  operation for your medical condition. You hear from the doctors that there are risks involved. They tell you the percentages of the risk and although mathematically, you hear that the risk is 10%, somehow the risk of 10% seems worse than the 90% success rate. It also doesn’t help that you get all kinds of well intentioned advice – take this herb, try this alternative treatment, go to this faith healer, take this type of food etc. You become confused as to which advice to take.

2. Let the light of God’s Word shine on your situation

By now, many thoughts would have come into your mind – some helpful, some not so helpful. At times, you may even sense darkness all around you. When darkness surrounds us, we need to let in the light of God’s Word. We don’t resist the darkness by fighting the dark thoughts. The best way to fight the darkness is to let in the light. That will help us see what God wants us to see rather than be burdened by the dark thoughts within us. I will share with you what God’s Word says about decision making.

3. God is with you in the thick darkness surrounding your decision making

God’s Word reminds you in Exodus 20:21 that God is in your thick darkness. He is always with you. You are not alone. As you go through your decision making, you can claim Jesus’ assurance that the Holy Spirit lives within you and will never leave you. The Holy Spirit “will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13). Jesus assures you, “Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me…the Holy Spirit … will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:1; 25-27).

4. No such thing as a bad decision in the Kingdom Of God

In the Kingdom of God, there is no bad decision. When you put God in the centre of your decision making, you can’t go wrong. Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” God promises that He will guide you as you decide. Therefore, “commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. The LORD works out everything for His own ends.” (Proverbs 16:3-4). You live a guided life as you are God’s special child. He loves you beyond your wildest imagination. You are God’s beloved child in whom He is well pleased because you chose to believe in your elder brother Jesus. When it comes to decision making, your Heavenly Father “works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)

5. God’s grace is sufficient for you one day at a  time

When troubled thoughts come into your mind as you think about your situation, don’t resist the thoughts – replace them with God’s Word which I have quoted to you. When you get weary, remember that God is strongest when you are weakest because God’s “grace is sufficient for you for (His) power is made perfect in (your) weakness.”(2 Corinthians 12:9). Remember also that when you are weak, then you are strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

God wants you to trust Him daily- it’s His daily bread which is sufficient for your needs (Exodus 16). Jesus wants you to rest in Him. He tells you to go to Him when you are weary and burdened. He promised that you would find rest for your soul. This picture of rest is found in Matthew 11:28-30. It is a picture of a young inexperienced ox being yoked to a mature and much stronger ox. The young ox will learn from the mature ox which direction to take when ploughing. When the young ox encounters an obstacle in its path and has no strength to plough through the difficulty, he borrows the strength of the mature ox to see him through the difficulty. You are that young ox and Jesus is the mature ox whom you are yoked to. You live on borrowed strength from Jesus. That’s how you can rest in Him and trust Him to direct you in difficult paths. You trust in Jesus one day at a time. Therefore, don’t let tomorrow’s worries steal today’s joy (Matthew 6:34).

6. You are a Victor in God’s eyes

In my previous blog, I said that you are a Victor in God’s eyes. You are “the crowned one”. You are crowned by God and He considers you a winner. You are a Victor and not a victim of your circumstances. With God’s help, you rise above your circumstances. You don’t need to be better than others. You only need to be better than yourself. You trust God for today. And you will be better today than you were yesterday. You trust God one day at a time and you will be better tomorrow than you are today.

7. Faithfulness

In God’s eyes, the crown is awarded not to those who cross the finishing line first. The crown is awarded to those who cross the finishing line. It is awarded to the faithful. Keep on trusting God daily. Your God is faithful and He will never let you down. His Holy Spirit gives you His strength and walks beside you in your journey of faith (John 14:16). You never walk alone and the Holy Spirit crosses the finishing line with you

8. Total Surrender

Finally,  know what total surrender to God is. Like your elder brother Jesus said to your Heavenly Father, you too can pray, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will… My Father , if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matthew 26:39,42). You let God have His way and let God have His say in your life. Keep on meditating on these Words from Scriptures and they will bring light into your decision making.

Righteousness Is A Position And Not Based On Our Actions

1. Can we lose our righteousness through sinful actions?

A Christian once asked me this question – ” If we sin, are we still considered righteous?? How should we feel/ behave when we sin (if guilt is not really the right response)?”  Underlying this question is the assumption that we can lose our righteousness through the action of sinning. Is this a correct assumption? Did we receive our righteousness through our right behaviour? If we did not receive our righteousness through right behaviour, how can we lose it through wrong behaviour (sinful action)?

2. Righteousness is given and not earned

Righteousness is given to you by God’s grace and not earned through your right action. Righteousness is a position given to you and not the result of an action done by you. Righteousness means you are right with God because of your faith in Jesus’ death on the cross. You have been saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). It has nothing to do with your right action. You are right with God because in God’s eyes, Jesus was your rightful payment for the sin debt you owed God. Jesus paid a debt He never owed because you owed a debt which you could never pay. He paid for your salvation and you got the benefits.

3. Example

Take the example of a father who paid for his family’s hotel stay which includes buffet breakfast. Since the father has made payment to the hotel, his 7-year-old boy has the right to enter the hotel’s restaurant and feast at the buffet table. As he walks around to enjoy the food, he didn’t pay for it. His father paid for it and now he has the rightful position to be in the restaurant to partake of the food. He may be small, weak and appear undeserving to be in such a restaurant. Yet, no one can drive this little boy away from the restaurant. If he misses the mark (sin) by not eating all the food on offer or by making a mess of himself , he still has the right to be in the restaurant as his right was not due to him but due to the payment made by his father.

4. Righteousness is lost in our minds and not through our actions

Similarly, your Heavenly Father sent Jesus to pay your sinful debt. You are therefore made right with God and your sin can’t remove your rightful position before God because it has nothing to do with how good you are but how good Jesus’ sacrifice for you is. Righteousness is lost in our minds and not through our actions. When we can’t believe in our minds that Jesus’ death on the cross is effective for our righteousness, we deprive ourselves of the joy of salvation and give the devil the chance to condemn us.

5. Confess and move on

This is the conclusion –  when we sin, we remain righteous. However, it is natural to feel that we have hurt God. What we then do is to approach His throne of grace and agree with Him(confess) that what we did was wrong and trust Him to forgive us as He has promised in His Word (1 John 1:9). We move on with our lives after our confession and not allow the devil to flood us with the condemnation of guilt. The battle for righteousness is fought in the mind. When you believe that you are righteous and that no sin can take that rightful position from you; you have won and the devil has lost.

6. Don’t partner the devil

Some  Christians partner the devil by accepting his condemnation and doubting their salvation. If you choose to partner someone, I would urge  you to partner the Holy Spirit instead. He is here to convince you of your righteousness (John 16:8) and not like the devil who is here to condemn you for your sinfulness. Don’t be sin conscious. Be righteous conscious as you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21)

A Victor In God’s Eyes

1. A crown for the victor

In the Bible, Christians are told that they will be rewarded with the crown of righteousness (2Timothy 4:8), the crown of life (James 1:12), the crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4) by God and Christ. What is this crown and how do we qualify for it?

In the literal sense, this crown was  “the wreath or garland” which was given as a prize to victors in the Greek public games. But in the Christian context, this crown refers to the eternal blessedness which will be given as a prize to the genuine servants of God and Christ. The crown (wreath) is the reward of the righteous in Christ. The crown will be given to Christians who remain faithful to Christ and persevere to the end ( Revelation 2:10)

2. You are a victor and not a victim

As a Christian, you are a victor and not a victim. No matter how bad your situation is, you will triumph because God is able to make you succeed (Romans 14:4 GNT). With God’s help you are a victor who will rise above your circumstances and not a victim of circumstances. The Bible says you are more than a conqueror through Christ who loves you (Romans 8:37).

3. How can you become a victor in God’s eyes?

 A victor in God’s eyes has the following 3 characteristics:-

 (A) Better than yourself and not better than others

God sees a victor or winner differently from how the world sees a winner. In the world’s eyes, a winner has to beat off the competition. A winner has to be better than others. But in God’s view, His winner is not someone who is better than others but is someone who is better than himself. As you grow in your faith, God sees a winner developing. You may not have reached perfection (none of us will on this side of heaven), but you are better today than you were yesterday. And you will be better tomorrow than you are today.

(B) Faithfulness

When the Scripture refers to the word “crown”, one common characteristic stands out. The “crown” is not awarded to those who cross the finishing line first but is given to those who cross the finishing line. The “crown” is given to those who are faithful to the end. When you are faithful to your God and faithful to your neighbour, you are on the right track.

When God looks at your faithfulness, He sees the small things you do. In the Parable of the Talents, we read that God rewards faithfulness shown not in the big things but in the small things (Matthew 25:21).

(C) Humble submission to God’s will

A victor according to the Bible is not someone who trust in himself to do what he wants to do. Instead, God’s victor is someone who trust in Him alone. To be a victor, you need to be willing to let God have His way in your life – this is humble submission to God’s will in practice.

Based on what I described above, you can be a victor in God’s eyes.