Choosing Wisely

An adult makes about 35,000 decisions daily or about one every two waking seconds. Most are micro choices, while only occasionally macro decisions with major implications pop up. Throughout these micro choices, patterns of decision-making are operating. They have a cumulative effect, for better or worse.

In Decision Making and the Will of God, Garry Friesen notes that traditional Biblical decision-making implies God has three wills: (1) His sovereign will over everything, (2) His moral will for everyone, and (3) His individual will for each person.

His individual will is a detailed plan for each person’s life. It suggests that there is a center point of God’s will that I must discover before I make a decision; that God’s perfect will is found through inner impressions and outward signs like open and closed doors. Does God have a detailed plan for my life? I’m not so sure. What if I make wrong decisions and miss out? Does He want me to marry? Which person? What about occupation?

Does Scripture teach an individual will? Many verses talk about God’s will referencing, leading, guiding, calling, and teaching. We are to hear Him and to follow Him. These scriptures speaking of God’s will  apply better to the moral will of God and do not prove an individual plan for every person.

His moral will, on the other hand, is what we must base all our decisions and actions upon. God is a wise Father who equips His children with the principles and concepts they need for life and gives them freedom to apply them. He is not a micromanager who dictates every aspect of our lives, but He does want us to apply His moral will in every situation we encounter and to make every decision from that premise.

The “individual will” mindset includes some confounding implications. For practical purposes, it delays decisions too much—just try to find God’s specific will on what to wear, what to eat, when to leave for work. Working with this filter for larger decisions with similar pros and cons, we must assume only one choice is correct. Which one is it? What if I choose the wrong one?

Usually, then, we rely on impressions and outward signs, hoping they line up in some coherent fashion. But signs and impressions can be subjective and fickle, making for poor footing for life choices. If we believe that God has one plan for me and that my job is to find it, we tend to make immature, unwise decisions. We either delay decisions, wasting valuable time, or we forge ahead with unwarranted confidence using “God told me,” to disregard wise advice.

How does the Holy Spirit lead and guide us? He mostly leads through Scripture, and less through inner impressions. The Holy Spirit works to show us the moral will of God but does not usually give specific direction in life decisions, large or small. If God gives supernatural guidance, it will be unmistakable. Few of us will experience metaphysical intervention, and we should never expect it. Of course, if God would speak to us in a blaze of light like He did to Paul, we should listen!

“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21 NKJV)

In this verse, I envision a shepherd walking behind me and whispering in my ear, “Turn to the right, turn to the left. STOP! Now, go ahead!” If this is God’s voice, through the Spirit, what is He saying? What kind of direction should I expect? He is constantly reminding me of His moral will and causing me to check my attitudes and motives. “Aaron, that wasn’t very kind, now, was it? Why are you ignoring this person? Is that a grudge I see?” Hey, you should do something for Jack. Show some love to him. Stop! You are losing your temper.” This is the amazing resource Jesus brought by the Holy Spirit. I don’t think the Spirit is saying, “Sell this vehicle; buy this house; start this business; eat bagels, not bacon.”

With freedom comes responsibility. And two aspects of proper decision making are righteousness and wisdom. To make wise choices and decisions, we need to take plenty of time, but in small decisions we need to move quickly to save time for the big ones. Wisdom calls us to make large decisions before our options narrow. If we wait too long, the decision will flow right into the path of least resistance when, finally, there is only one course available. It can seem godly when we say we are, “waiting on the Lord,” when in fact we are sitting on our hands.

God wants us to use His principles and to direct our lives and those of the minors we are responsible for, effectively and wisely. Inside the framework of His moral will for all humans, we will not be deceived. I find great comfort in that. His will is primarily love. Love experienced and practiced well is the solution to every dilemma and needs not be balanced with anything else. If we start procrastinating unnecessarily or depending on impressions and signs, we tend toward immature, unwise decisions and little peace or progress.

God’s sovereign will cannot be known except partially in retrospect. God’s plan will be accomplished, and nothing can stop it; He knows the end from the beginning. C.S. Lewis makes a word picture of a red line drawn across a paper, which represents the trajectory of a human life. A conscious dot moves along the red line. From the dot’s perspective, the future is unmarked and free.

Imagine an omniscient being monitoring this process. He knows how and where this red line will end. Now, let’s expand the diagram to include thousands of lines running across the paper, merging and diverging, all on the conscious journey across the page. God’s ability to know what each line will look like and where each one will end up does not affect their freedom at all. God can take any situations that occur and use them to accomplish His purposes. If humans made decisions on instinct, we would be like animals. If God controlled every decision, we would be like robots. God made us in His image!

Augustine said, “Love God and do whatever you please.” You cannot go wrong inside the moral will of God. When God gives direction and explicit instruction, we must obey. When there are no specifics, we have freedom to choose however we want within His moral directives.

Young man, God does not have a specific marriage partner picked out for you. He equips you with His value system and wants you to brace up and decide if and who to marry. Moral principles of respect, love, and kindness operate throughout the process. The objective is not to find a decision that God has already made for you, but to make a wise decision. A wise person understands they have much to learn.

Asking and giving advice can be a two-edged sword. When we are young, we should ask more advice and lean heavily on those with more wisdom. As we get older, we should accumulate more wisdom of our own. Too often we ask advice with foolish expectations. Subconsciously, we want to shift responsibility or, perhaps, we know what to do and are trying to get out of it. Advice should be asked with an open mind and processed as part of decision. Adults should never commit blindly to anyone’s advice. This is why third-party mediation is very touchy and often ineffective. Advice must be free and point to basic principles of love.

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17 NKJV)

We can understand God’s will, for He clearly revealed it in His Word. God’s will is not hidden or difficult to find. Happily, we can face tomorrow’s 34,998 small choices and two big ones with confidence.