We’re all just trying to make the right choices, we’re trying to do the best we can with the skills and tools available to us. When we need to make big decisions we’ll often ask people’s advice because we care about their opinion but it goes deeper than that, we make decisions based on who we are living for the approval of. It’s what fuels our motivations and desires, fuels our decisions and our whole outlook on life.
How do you go about making a good decision?
You know what you want to do and you’re pretty sure you know what others might think but how do we go about knowing what about God thinks? Does it even matter if we involve Him in the decision making process if we’ve been given brains to make our own decisions?
Listening to a trustworthy God
We listen to and trust those closest to us for an honest opinion. The Bible says God knows us and loves us and He longs for us to understand Him more. It’s about a relationship. When we think that God is our genie granting us all our requests or a grumpy boss only willing to give what we’ve worked for, our attitude to Him is going to be skewed.
But when we speak to Him we’re not asking someone who’s got it out for us or wants to teach us a lesson, our Heavenly Father wants what’s good and best for us. And our attitude to asking Him for help when making decisions should be like that of a child who trusts her father to be kind and compassionate.
Inonge and I have a conversation about this in a video. For now we’re going to think about how we can communicate well with God and understand how He speaks to us in return.
How do we hear God speak?
There’s three main ways God speaks to us. It might be helpful to add here that there are other ways but these aren’t guaranteed and if you don’t hear God speak that way it doesn’t make you less of a Christian.
Through His Word in the Bible
The most fundamental place where we will hear God speak and where He communicates with us is in His Word, the Bible. It gives us everything we need for living our best God honouring lives and to live in relationship with Him (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
God speaks to us in His Word because He wants to equip us to be the very best versions of ourselves as we can. He uses His words to teach, warn, correct and train us, and we listen to His Word because we trust Him and know that His words are truthful and life giving.
The Psalmist invited the Lord to teach him more because he knows listening to God and His words are going to be good for his heart (Psalm 119:33-34). Wanting to hear God speaking comes through obeying the Lord with all your heart and in time, you’ll make decisions which will be in line with His thoughts.
By the Holy Spirit working in us
God’s Spirit speaks to us through our conscience, helping us to make the right decision. God promises all those who have put their trust in Him that we are given the Holy Spirit, God’s helper who lives in us. When we’re tempted, this same Spirit warns and nudges us to do the right thing (John 14:16-17).
What an encouragement, we are known by God because He lives in us and He will always be with us! He might not be an audible voice in your head but it’s true.
Through others
In the regular day to day chats: Hopefully you’ve got a good Christian role model in your life. God will often speak to you through the Christians you trust and give permission to speak into your life. That might be a parent, youth leader, teacher, sibling or friend.
When we hear how God is working in their lives: When someone goes through things that are similar to us we can feel encouraged to continue to trust God. He’ll often use those conversations to give you confidence in Him even when it’s tough.
In the hard conversations: We can hear God’s views on our lives when someone gives us a loving rebuke because they can see how we are slowly drifting and they want us to come back to God.
Common misunderstandings about making decisions
Hunches
Because we can be secure and certain of God’s word and His work in our lives we don’t need to go on hunches. This is a great relief especially if you, like me, spend a lot of time overthinking and second guessing things. How wonderful that God takes the guesswork out of knowing what He thinks about my life and the decisions I need to make. God makes himself plain and knowable and won’t leave us high and dry when we ask Him for His help.
Not making a decision
We also don’t need to be distracted by ‘let go and let God’ thinking as if somehow suspending our judgement and giving up our decision making skills is more godly. He promises to be with us as we make decisions and guides us. God is our life giver, He uses our different personalities and life experiences to be a help to others and to bring us life to the full. You making decisions is part of the journey. You might not end up where you wanted but in each life experience God works for our good and to make us more like His Son, Jesus when we trust in Him.
Ultimately when we are listening to God and trying to make decisions, our actions are to line up with the Word of God. If there is something that seems to be contradicting the Bible then it’s not from God. We need to be regularly reading the Bible for ourselves so that we know and can discern what is from God and what is the world influencing us. The Holy Spirit will never act in contradiction to the written Word of God. But even those times, when we feel like we’re not hearing from God, are times He uses to teach and train us for His glory.
There’s too much to try and cover in one post – here’s a video where we talk about some of the practicalities.
Book recommendations
Just do something and Taking God at His Word both written by Kevin De Young
