Decision Making 101

Scripture Read: Judges 8:4-9 Then Gideon and the 300 men who were with him came to the Jordan and crossed over, weary yet pursuing. He said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me, for they are weary, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” The leaders of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands, that we should give bread to your army?” Gideon said, “All right, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” He went up from there to Penuel and spoke similarly to them; and the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered. So he spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, “When I return safely, I will tear down this tower.”

Application: How sad it is when we allow our decisions to be guided by circumstances only! I believe wisdom requires that circumstances be included in our decision making process, however, when they become the determining factor we throw true faith out the door and fall prey to the mercy of chance...which is no mercy at all! 

As children of God we must keep before us at all times that our God does not think like we think. He is not limited the way we are limited. He does not see with human eyes but divine ones, nor is His knowledge finite like ours is. Every decision we face is under His ultimate control and while we should evaluate all the circumstances surrounding that decision, we must first and foremost consider what our Lord would desire us to do. As we bring the decision before Him in prayer and seek counsel from His Word and godly friends, we need to be asking key questions such as; what will glorify God in this decision; how will this make me more Christ-like; is there any Scripture that addresses this directly...and yes, even, what do I desire? God truly does desire to give us the desire of our hearts, the problem is that in our fallen state our heart cannot be trusted to desire that which is truly best for us.  

Jeremiah 17:9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

The journey God takes us on during our decision making process is geared to weed our heart of the desires the flesh pushes so hard to have. This is a relentless hunger and war that will continue until the day we are with the Lord.

Galatians 5:17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

The leaders of Penuel and of Succoth were short sighted and will pay the price as we will see. Let’s make sure we do not live the same way. Counting the cost of a decision does include considering the circumstances, but it weighs all the circumstances against the will of an Almighty, All Loving and All Knowing God!

Meditation Questions: When making a decision, what factors do you consider? How much weight do you give each factor? Why? Do you seek counsel? From where? What do you do when the circumstances seem to be dictating a direction that you have no peace with? What does that say? Have you ever made a decision based solely on circumstances? What happened? Do you think it was wise? If everything worked out, does that still make that a wise decision? How do you seek the Lord to find out His heart? Describe what that process looks like.