Making The Right Decisions

Last Sunday we looked at the process that will help each of us in making the right decisions. Some decisions we make are easy ones because we can just look at the situation and know in an instant what to decide. Others are not so easy and those are the ones that we need help with. Those are the ones we may even struggle with. Some decisions are BIG, and others are small, but no matter how big or how small the decision is, many of them can be important. It’s amazing to me how many places people will turn to when they need help in making a decision. But when we’re faced with making a decision there’s one place that we should always turn to and that place is the bible.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says,
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

These two verses have a lot to say about decision-making. God wants us to make wise decisions. He wants us to follow His guidance. In these verses God gives us three steps we need to take when it comes to making decisions.

The first thing God tells us to do is trust in the Lord. To trust in the Lord is to make a commitment to the Lord. To trust in the Lord is to rely on God and believe that He is big enough to take care of the situation. Then Proverbs tells us how much we're supposed to trust with the words, “with all your heart.” God doesn't want partial devotion, He doesn't want partial trust. He wants our total devotion and our total trust.

The second thing these verses tell us to do is to not lean on our own understanding. Why? Because our understanding is limited. There is no way we can understand everything. From our vantage point we can't see the entire picture. We don’t have all the facts.

The third thing these verses tell us is to acknowledge God in all our ways. God wants us to trust Him because when we trust in our own understanding in all ways of our life we’re in trouble. Notice verse 6 doesn’t say “some” of our ways. It doesn’t say “most” of our ways. It verse says “all” of our ways. All means means trusting God in everything you and I do.

And finally the last phrase of verse 6 tells us that God will direct our paths. Our part is to trust God, not trust our own understanding, acknowledge God in all our ways and then He will do His part, and He shall direct our paths.