We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings. We have depended on God’s grace, not on our own human wisdom. (2 Corinthians 1:12, NLT)
Are you “swinging more confidently” in your life after yesterday’s consideration of how to make decisions without worry? Certainly, we do best to ask key questions and seek the Lord in prayer when faced with a decision. But sometimes the answer isn’t lined out in absolute terms, and we must “start the swing,” trying not to worry. There’s a whole lot of trusting God in that approach!
Let’s go back to yesterday’s decision making scenario, where you are considering relocating after being offered an excellent position in another city. Honestly, weighing the job choice may be the easiest part of the decision. And you may get that part of the decision just right.
But what of every other intertwined decision that comes with such a move, especially for those in your family? Your spouse may also need to seek a new job in your new location. There’s a big decision. Your children may have to choose new friends and find their way in a new school. There’s a big decision, or two, or three. You’ll have to find a new house, a new church, a new favorite restaurant, a new place to play golf. More decisions.
So let me ask you: What do you think are the chances of getting all these decisions “right?”
If you’re honest in answering that question, you can easily take the next step to this conclusion: life’s decisions—especially the “bad” ones—are one way that God keeps us humble.
Consider today’s passage from 2 Corinthians 1. Paul opened this second letter to his friends in Corinth by describing the great hardship he and his companions went through in Asia. He went so far as to say, “We expected to die.” Talk about plans gone wrong! And yet here is what Paul wrote next: “But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God.”
Paul may well have said along the way, “What was I ever thinking in choosing to follow the Lord here?” But now, from the other side of trouble, he could write that the result was unmatchable—they had learned to rely wholly on the Lord.
With all the worrying in which we wrap our decisions, we too often fail to see that God is in charge, and that he lays out our lives by his grace. Indeed, Paul wrote, it is God’s grace that trumps the human wisdom with which we make our decisions.
So here’s how we shall end today: We will all be pushed to make decisions. Some of these decisions will go awry. And yet it is in the “bad” decisions that God has every opportunity to render his love and deepen our humble dependence on him.
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Jeff Hopper
November 1, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.