LIFE
decisions
RULES
Personally I like
things pretty BLACK and white. The gReY area has had a tendency to really frustrate me.
I love those “Thus saith the
Lords”. Tell me the rules, and I‘ll play the game. Give me the list of expectations, and I’ll meet them.
It’s comfortable.
It’s safe.
It’s pretty easy to
pull that “God card” out of your back pocket when explaining a
decision to someone.
But you know what. There’s not always a “Thus saith the
Lord.”
I’m actually even learning that there’s not necessarily
always the one right decision, and that has SCARED me.
I’ve realized that
I’ve had kind of a d o m i n o effect way of thinking when it comes to
decisions. Make the wrong one and then BAM! There they all
go. Knocked to the ground. You blew your chances of meeting that
man that you’ve been patiently waiting for or that perfect job you’ve been
working for. Years of faithfulness all down the drain and then wondering
how you’ll ever get on the right path again.
The Father has been challenging me though. It can be so annoying when He
does this. He just doesn’t quit! Inviting me do things out of my comfort zone. Nudging me
to dig a little deeper, get a little bit more uncomfortable.
Not very long ago someone told me it takes more faith to trust God and step out into
something when you don’t have a BLACK and white answer from the Lord than when
you do. As you mature, the Lord will give you more choices.
Now, making decisions isn’t something that I necessarily
love to do. I’d much rather the Lord
just say, Jessica move to this place for this amount of time and live here and
do this and that. And sometimes He works
like that and gives us very specific words and direction, but a lot of times He
doesn’t.
Parents will often give their children options of what they
want to eat or what movie they want to watch or which friend they can have
sleep over. They give their kids a
choice. They let them make a
decision. Picking a chicken nugget over
a steak isn’t a wrong decision when given the option to choose. A parent wouldn’t punish their child for
this.
How much more loving is our heavenly Father?! We must remember WHOSE we are. We must remember that He loves us and desires
a relationship with us.
Even if
we make a “wrong� decision but we’re following after the Lord, He’ll lead us
back to where He wants us to go. It may
take a little longer, but we’ll still get there. He’ll still be with us through the
journey.
That takes the pressure off of
thinking that if I accidentally (or even on purpose) make one wrong decision that I’ve blown my life
and missed the best that God would’ve given me.
Sometimes a seemingly step “backwards” is actually a step
forward. Sometimes it doesn’t make any sense at all to our carnal way of
thinking. Whenever things don’t work out like we thought they were going to we sometimes wonder if we ever really heard God speak at
all.
Here’s where we come to the perspective part.
How are we looking at things? We must have a right view of God and ourselves. Are we seeing things through His eyes or our flesh?
So in the midst of this process when I’ve been seeking the Lord for answers about different things, He’s been
whispering something a bit new to me these past few months. He’s been opening my eyes and showing me new things.
He’s been leading me to seek Him.
To spend time getting to know HIM. To sit in HIS presence. To find out more about HIS character.
As we
do this, He leads us and guides into good places. He aligns our heart with His, our desires
with His desires, and this enables us to make those decisions that please Him
because our heart is in the right place with Him.
It’s not about me seeking the Lord to get the answers I need
so that I can make the “right� decision.
It’s about getting to know my Creator. It’s about glorifying Him with my life. How can I even make
decisions that are pleasing to Him if I don’t KNOW HIM? It’s about taking the focus off of ME.
When we enter into the presence of the Lord
and just sit with Him we find a freedom and a rest that we have never known. Striving and performance is gone because
there we sit in the presence of God Almighty, and He’s just smiling at us,
proud of us for being His kids and wanting to spend time with Him and get to
know Him.
He did make us after all.
He sees us through the costly
blood of His son, Jesus. He sees us
blameless and spotless and pure. That’s
so crazy!
I’m finding that I really like it here. Just sitting in my Father’s lap. Hanging out with Him. It’s a place of deep rest and security. His presence is a place of safety and refuge
when everything else seems to be going crazy.
Let’s face it.
The grey areas are tough. Sometimes there just isn’t that BLACK and white answer that I want, and I end up needing to wade through the gReY mud to get to the other side.
The exciting news is that I’m finding it’s a journey worth going on.
Life is messy, but God’s pretty great at picking us up, dusting us off and leading us in the right direction.
Have faith. He is trustworthy.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28
