Have you ever made a decision without consulting God before? You make it with all the good intentions in mind, but once you are in the midst of the action, you start thinking ‘where did I go wrong?’ Or ‘what didn’t I do that I was supposed to do?’
Or, I’ll even take it a step further, you take your concerns to God, either telling Him how it should play out or the first opportunity presents itself and you’re like ‘yes God, thank you for answering’ without actually rechecking with God to make sure that that was your answered prayer.
I guess I must say I’ve had both situations happen to me lots of times. You think I would have actually learned from my previous mistakes, but somehow I tend to forget about the previous situations.
Early last year I had been praying fervently about a situation. I was presented with a group of people and thought they had been the ones I had long prayed for. So, without rechecking with God, when they showed up on the scene, my only response was ‘I’ve been praying about this, so this is right’ without further exploring with God whether they were right or not. To make a long story short, they have not only proven themselves that they were not the right people, but they did it pretty quickly. It has been both a miserable time and costly decision.
After I shared my last blog thought, a friend sent me a devotion that the message was similar about being willing to do what God has called me to do. I’ve know learned that God has an amazing sense of humor, and He uses repetition for emphasis. This devotion had the story of Gideon, and I felt the need to go and reread it. While Gideon was afraid of proceeding and doing God’s will, he did anyway. He asked God for quite a few signs that it was God speaking to him and giving him directions before he proceeded. I know he operated from a perspective of fear, but he did the job anyway. He was also cautious to make sure that it was directions from God.
I think if I haven’t learned much over the course of this time (please bear with me because I’m human and I still forget), it’s that before I make decisions, I should bring God into the situation and ask Him what He would have me do and WAIT for Him to answer.
Dear Heavenly Father, sometimes making decisions are difficult, especially when we want to make wise decisions that glorify you. Please help us to test what we think you want us to do against your word and the wisdom and guidance you have given to us. Help us to pay attention to you and your directives.