In this life, we make decisions of all kinds. We make smaller decisions regularly on a daily basis. We call them smaller decisions because if we happen to make the wrong choices on these smaller decisions, it is not the end of the world. But from time to time, we are asked to make bigger life decisions. Making bigger decisions is quite different. If we happen to make the wrong choices on bigger decisions, it can lead to catastrophes. How do I know what decisions to make? How do I know which college God wants me to attend? How do I know whom God wants me to marry? How do I know if God wants me to become a software engineer, or something else? How do I know where God wants me to move to in my retirement? We have made decisions all our lives and we will continue to make them until the day we die. How do we know if we are to say “yes” to something? And “no” to other things? How do we know what decisions we are to make?
What I can think of immediately is prayer. We are creatures and therefore we see only a part of what goes on in our world and what goes on in our lives. In comparison, our God is the Creator who sees the full picture of what he has made, and therefore he knows what decisions we ought to make each and every time. We need to pray to an all-knowing God so we may make better decisions. The Bible teaches us to go to God in prayer when we need wisdom or counsel.
Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Isaiah 48:17 This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
However, even after we have prayed, you and I know sometimes we still struggle to know what choices to make. I know of people who prayed fervently, and afterwards still questioned what choice God expects them to make. They didn’t move even an inch towards their decision. Maybe you were that someone. It has happened to me too, and that was frustrating.
But once in a while, I come across a person who says to me he knows he is making the right decision. He knows he is making the decision he knows God wants him to make. When I ask him how he knows he is making the right decision, and how he knows he is making the decision God wants him to make, he says he knows because after he prayed, he has this peace inside his heart. After he made his decision, he was no longer worried. It made him feel at ease. He had no anxiety. His appetite returned. He slept better at night. He was happier materially, emotionally and mentally. The peace he experienced confirmed to him the decision he made was the decision God had wanted him to make. Alternatively, if he were making the wrong decision, he would not have experienced peace. He would have anxiety, even angst. The feeling of lack of peace was enough to tell him he made a poor decision, or he made a decision God didn’t want him to make.
Please be careful.
Making the right choice is not the same thing as making the safest choice. It is not as simple as finding the choice that gives you the least pain, the least angst and the least anxiety, and making that your choice. It is not as simple as making the choice that gives you the most comfort, the most happiness, and the most calm. We like to make a choice like this our choice because it offers us the peace we all love to have, and to have more and more of it. We like to think also that because we experience peace, this has to be the choice that God wants us to make. But we may be making a big mistake. Maybe. Because it may not be necessarily the choice that we should make or necessarily the choice God wants us to make. I am not saying that this isn’t the choice God wants us to make. I am saying we simply don’t know. Understanding which is God’s choice for us and which is not God’s choice for us is not as simple as finding out which option gives us the most peace in our hearts, and making that our choice.
Putting it in a different way, if you experienced safety, calm and peace after you made a decision, this is no confirmation that you had in fact made the right decision or that this was the decision God had wanted you to make. Do not confuse the right decision with the decision that offers us peace. These two things are mutually exclusive. People of the world decide which choice to make based on which choice gives them the most peace. It is different for you and me. Sometimes, the choice that gives us peace is the choice we should make. But not always. Sometimes, the choice that we should make gives us less peace, not more. This, of course, makes no sense to the world.