Major decisions are almost always difficult. It’s hard to know which option is right because we can’t see around the corner to know the end result of our decision. Obviously, we want God’s will to be done, but we are not always sure we know God’s will in a given situation. When we pray for help in making decisions we usually hope God will step in and show us the answer, if not in a miraculous way, at least in an obvious one. We want Him to put up a signpost, or arrange circumstances to push us in the right direction. Better yet, we would like for Him just to close off all the options but the right one.
The problem is that things usually don’t happen that way. Most of our options remain attractive right up to the moment the decision must be made. In spite of our prayers, God seems to be standing aside with arms folded saying, “Well, what are you going to do?” Why doesn’t he step in and help us make up our minds?
He doesn’t need to step in because he has already given us all we need to make every decision we face. He has given the basic principles of right and wrong, the wisdom to apply those principles to your life, a mind to sort through the facts and evaluate options, parents and friends through whom He speaks, and judgement to place all the options in perspective. To ask for more not only is redundant, it amounts to rejecting these gifts he has already given as inadequate. It’s like asking God to build the house after he has given you the lumber, the tools, the skill, and the blueprint.
Decision-making is one area where God does not intervene because decision making is our unique function as humans. By choosing, we exercise the freedom that characterizes humanity. If God made decisions for us or even leaned heavily on us to make right decisions, he would deprive us of the power of choice – the attribute that makes us unique in creation. Animals don’t make major decisions. Animal instinct is a mechanism that pre-determines behavior and eliminates the need to choose. The absence of optional behavior is one characteristic that defines the nature of animals. The lower the animal, the less options it has. But man defines himself by making choices. Just as the decision at each fork in the road determines the destination, each decision we make will ultimately determine what we will become. For God to intervene would deny us our development as free humans.
Adam and Eve had to make their decision alone. Had God been hovering about, ready to give advice or make all the apples suddenly rot when Eve reached for one, their freedom to choose would have been a sham. The three men given the talents in Matthew 25 had to decide alone. The master gave them responsibility for his money, then left them on their own. Two of these men decided to put the money to use, and their decisions turned out well. But the third man couldn’t make up him mind. He couldn’t decide exactly what he thought his master would want him to do with the money. Any option with the potential of earning interest also had the potential of losing the principle. So he decided not to decide and thus brought down the wrath of his master. He failed in his responsibility to make a decision on his own with no direct help from his master.
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So what is the use of praying before we make decisions? We should pray not for divine intervention, but for the proper functioning of the decision-making apparatus God has given us. Pray for wisdom. Ask God to give you a clear mind, free of your own wants and desires that so easily intrude and distort an objective view of God’s will. Pray for strength to plunge and persevere when the decision is made. Pray for a strengthened faith to trust in God to be with you on the course you choose. And thank him for giving you options and the apparatus needed to choose between them.
Then make the decision, relax, don’t worry and don’t look back.
–TOM WILLIAMS