If
you follow my blog at all, you will have probably noticed that the last couple
of weeks I have been fairly quite in posting. Has she gone rogue?
Has she quite blogging? Has
she gotten lazy? Is she just too
busy? The answer to those is
no. My husband and I have been
making many big decisions and then working out the details of those. Who knew that making a decision could
be that big of a deal. But many
times it is. For us, this was a
life changer—not only for us but also for those we work with and those we
serve. We made the decision to
step down from our work as full-time missionaries.
This
is a decision that was not made lightly.
All of us have to make daily decisions. Some of these will be the biggies and others will not be considered
as life changing. To each one of
us because they are our decisions to make they are important. Whatever decision is yours to make
today I want to share some of the ways that we worked through making our
decision in hopes that it might give you some assistance as you walk through
your journey of decision making.
1. Seek the Lord in Prayer:
Philippians
4:6 (ESV) do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
It’s
really hard to not feel anxious about making a decision but by giving it too
God in prayer it makes a difference knowing that He is in control of the
situation. It’s a great reminder
to turn that anxiety we feel into communication with God. We began asking God what he would have
us do. We asked him to show us
very specifically certain things: to show us in any way if our spirits were in
conflict with his will and to open and close doors. When we ask for the Lord’s help in making a decision we not
only recognize him to be in the place of Lordship where he should be but we are
reminded daily that He is in control and we are not.
2. Seek Godly counsel:
Proverbs
11:14
(ESV) Where there is no guidance,
a people
falls,
but in an abundance of
counselors
there is safety
We have two couples that have walked
with us in our decision making process.
Early on we went to them and asked them to “check us”. We wanted to make sure in our decision
that we were truly listening to the Lord and not to what WE thought. They spent time praying for us and
asking God to give us wisdom and to take any blinders off of our eyes that
might be there. They met with us
and talked through things, ideas, options, etc…. It’s important to have Godly Christian friends to walk
through life with you.
3.
Make a list of pros and cons:
Proverbs
18:13 (NIV)
To answer
before listening—
that is folly
and shame.
Get out a piece of paper and make your
list. On one side put your pros
and the other side put your cons.
If you are not a paper person then do these things in your mind. You’re thinking about it anyway so the
things that come to your mind put them in right side of your mental list. The questions to ask might be: Am I being obedient to the plan God has
for me? How is this going to affect me personally? How will this affect my family? How will this affect other people? How will this affect our finances? How will this affect where we live? Is this physically doable? Of course there are many other
questions to help guide you in your list but these are just a few to get you
started. Like the scripture says,
you don’t want to make a quick decision before you have prayed through and
thought through things. The last
thing you want to be labeled as what the Bible would say “a fool.”
4.
Know your options:
but the Lord
establishes his steps
If you are at all like me you like to
have options. You like to work a
plan. When making a decision to
buy a washing machine we made sure that we had options to choose from. Obviously, in the decision that we just
made it’s hard to have concrete options.
However, we did think about what they could be. Would we be able to find a job as a
senior pastor in the U.S.?
Probably. Are we marketable
in any way? Yes. Would we be willing to work at a fast
food restaurant if we needed to?
Yes. The main thing in
making decisions is that we can plan things out but ultimately God establishes our steps.
In making decisions a lot of it comes
down to the question of how much we trust God to be God and to do what he said
that he would do. We made a
decision to step down from missions.
Many have asked us if we have something lined up. The answer? Nope. This is
where I have to go back to the first scripture about not be anxious about anything
and just praying. Did I say it
before? Praying. Pray, pray and when you are done, pray some
more.
May God bless you and walk with you as
you make those tough decisions in life.
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