Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

wisdom

Choose Your Friends Wisely

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Mark Sanborn is an author and speaker from whom I have gleaned much wisdom over the years. One of the things he has said is, “You acquire much of the thinking, mannerisms, and characteristics of the people you are around.” It happens without any conscious effort on our part. Look at your circle of friends. I’ll bet if you tried, you would identify habits, dialects, and preferences you did not have before you began hanging out with them.

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Photo by Duy Pham on Unsplash

It’s what bonds people together in a unique way. Relationships thrive or die on whether this form of bonding occurs or not. Of course, not all the traits you graft on to yourself will be positive. There is as much opportunity to be worse for knowing your friends than there is to be better for it, so choose your friends wisely.

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Ask For Wisdom

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I heard something recently that really struck a chord with me: “When you pray, don’t ask for more blessings. Ask for wisdom to use the blessings you already have.” If you are anything like me, so much (too much!) of our time in prayer is spent asking God for things we need – or at least perceive that we need. I don’t know if this malady is exclusive to American Christians, but I suspect it is not. Still, in our culture of constantly wanting more, and success being measured by what we have, it’s easy to slip into the bad habit of always asking. We need to spend more time reflecting on and utilizing the blessings God has already bestowed upon us.

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Making the Big Decisions

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The biggest decision you will ever make in your life is whether or not to become a follower of Jesus. Beyond this, everything else trivially pales. Still, we will face many difficult choices throughout our lives. How can we be certain we are making the correct decision? Asking whether or not we are making the right choice is the wrong question; we should be most concerned with whether or not we are making a wise choice. The Bible tells us to ask for wisdom, and this is what is genuinely needed most when determining what we should do. We should seek the counsel of others, trusted individuals who have walked the path before us and have experience in the matters we are dealing with. Don’t ask broke people for financial advice or a single person for marital advice. You need to inquire of people who have been where we are and successfully navigated the storms in order to benefit from their experiences. Pray diligently for wisdom and peace concerning your decision. You may not ever hear a definite, unmistakable answer in your heart; but then again you just might! The Holy Spirit works within each believer to prompt us in the way we should go. We simply need to learn to be still and receptive to His leading. Ask others to pray on your behalf as well. Joining together in prayer around a common issue is powerful and one of the great and thrilling mysteries of God.

God created us as agents of free will. He has bestowed on us the honor and privilege of making our own choices. While there are certainly times in life where it would be great to just throw up our hands and have God make the decision for us, we recognize that life would be far less exciting if everything were dictated by someone else. Even though we are free to choose which direction we will go, we must realize that the path that leads to Christ is always the one we should take. Every decision has some spiritual element to it. We need to ask ourselves which choice will lead us closer to God, reflect His glory, or serve someone else in love. Learning to consider our choices in life through this spiritual lens will assist in making decisions far easier. If the choice in question involves money, which outcome will result in you being a better steward of God’s resources? If the decision is about a commitment of time, which choice will allow you to best utilize the number of hours to be spent doing kingdom work? When deciding between two potential job offers, determine which position will allow you to make a bigger impact in the lives of others for Christ. Again, every decision has a spiritual element. It is very important that we take the time to discover the implications of each choice in regards to our commitment to follow Jesus. The wise decision will always be the one that best positions us to serve others with the love of Christ. It may require temporary sacrifice, but it will reap eternal rewards.

We tend to get caught up in how our decisions affect us here and now in this present world. Instead, we should learn to make choices based on their effect in God’s eternal kingdom. This will remove much of the stress and trepidation we feel when faced with monumental decisions. It should never be about how choices will affect our own lives, but rather how they will affect the lives of those we are called to serve. Pray for wisdom and seek the counsel of others. Look at each choice through a spiritual lens; what makes the most sense for promoting the kingdom of God and His glory? Once we take the focus off of ourselves, the big decisions in life seem far smaller and we are able to move forward, confident that we are following in the footsteps of Jesus.

Making Decisions

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There are times in our life when we really need to hear the voice of God. During moments of decision, we all yearn for clear guidance, not wanting to make a mistake. We pray countless prayers begging Him for clarity, but more often than not are left with lingering doubt and frustration. If God is always near us, why does He seem so silent when we need Him most? I sometimes wonder if I’m so busy pleading that I can’t hear His voice over my own incessant chatter. Yet when I try to be still and just listen, the silence lasts only a few moments before my mental factory begins tooling up again and hurling thoughts across my mind. While I certainly have much to learn in this area, let me share with you a few things I have learned in my walk with Jesus.

God created us to be agents of freewill; therefore He’s not going to make most of our decisions for us. Unless they somehow impact His sovereign plan for the world, we are pretty much left to exercise our freedom of choice. So I generally pray for discernment and wisdom. Certainly God sees the big picture and can see all the possible future implications of whatever we decide to do – or not to do, as the case may be. That is why I pray for discernment, because there are powers and circumstances in play that I could never fathom. The second thing I pray for is wisdom. God gave us brains to be able to process facts and make decisions based on our findings. His Spirit lives within us enabling our intuition to be prodded in ways that protect us or lead us in certain directions. Our own life experience provides us with some clarity based on what we have been through up until this moment in our lives. The point of all of this is that God will not necessarily speak to us in an audible way. However, He does speak to us by giving us discernment and wisdom, by prompting certain “gut feelings” and by enabling us to draw on the knowledge of what we’ve seen and experienced.

When you face a major decision in life, or even a small one, our first task is to pray. Pray for discernment and wisdom. Pray that Jesus will give you clarity and peace in the process and to reveal what looks like the better choice for you in this moment. Ask for wisdom so that you might understand all of the ramifications of your decision. In addition to praying for wisdom, seek wise counsel for your decision. Draw on the experience of others, particularly those who are older than you so you can benefit of their own observations in life. Seek out mentors, friends and family that you respect and that lead the kind of life that is both reverent to God and successful in ways that you admire. Take time to reflect on your own background and aspirations. How does your decision affect your goals? Does it move you closer or further away from them? How will your decision affect your relationship with Jesus Christ? Will it move you closer or further away from Him? Weigh the ethics and, to the best of your ability, the long term implications of each path you could choose.

While we may long to hear the voice of God in a clear, audible way when we are faced with decisions, we must acknowledge that this will be the exception rather than the rule. He has not left us without the faculties to come to a good decision. He has placed the Holy Spirit with each of us who choose to believe and follow Him. He grants wisdom and discernment to those who ask. Our minds are a gift beyond all comprehension, and we have the ability to process all that we need in order to come to a wise and pleasing decision, one that will best position us to further the Kingdom. Never forget that the point of our life on earth is to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Every decision must be made with this in mind. What choice better enables you to be those hands and feet? While times of decision and change can be frightening, Jesus is with us every moment. His power and wisdom are ours for the asking. We need only seek Him, utilize every resource at our disposal and seek good counsel. Having done all this, make your decision and move forward with confidence. Jesus remains with you regardless of how you should decide. He will be with you in every moment of your life. Rest in that knowledge and embrace the freedom He has give to each of us. In Christ there is no fear; live your life in total devotion to Him. Every other decision is a minor detail and will fade away in time. All that counts, and all that remains, is what we choose to do with Jesus. Decide today to follow Him at any cost; the rest is easy.