I was on You Tube the other day and found this commercial. It just made me feel good. I love how everyone in old TV commercials seem so happy. Plus, this one just has that 70’s vintage feel that I love. It is like every decision these people have every made was the best one possible.
I have known Christians that are afraid of every little decision. Don’t get me wrong, I am not finding any fault with anyone, but I have met Christians that are afraid of messing up God’s plan or they over analyze every choice they make.
For example, I have met Christians that pray over the choice to have coffee, Sanka or otherwise. I think it is great that Christians are prayerful, but at some point you aren’t living up to Christ’s expectations if you are relying on him for every decision. God loves the fact that you can make choices and isn’t going to tell you whether or not you should have decaf or regular.
I’ve seen the opposite, too. I have encountered Christians that pray and never make a decision because they don’t feel like God is leading them one way or another. The truth is they are scared they may make a mistake. That leads to fear, which the devil can use to keep us from stepping out in faith.
So, there has to be a balance. We should consult God about decisions, but how do we figure out what to do next?
FIND TRUTH
Ask yourself, what do I know to be true? Remember you can’t trust other people all of the time because they aren’t perfect and can be wrong. Also, you can’t trust yourself because your own feelings and sin can cloud your judgement. The devil can attack our thoughts so we sometimes can’t think clearly.
So, the only right answer is scripture. It is the only thing we know to be concretely true. If we are going to make good decisions with our lives we must trust and know the word. The first item of the armor of God is the belt of truth. I’ll assume that since it was the first thing Paul mentioned that it must be a priority. And remember, the thing that is important about the belt is that it holds a soldier’s weapons.
It is all about truth and according to John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
FREEDOM
We all want to be free. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross creates a doorway for us to be free from our sins. Believe it or not many of us still live in that bondage that sin creates because we don’t look towards the truth. Sin creeps in and the devil steals our freedom and we may not even know it.
We can quickly tell though if we are delving into the word. It seems cliché to say read your Bible everyday, but that is just the first step. We need to bury the scripture deep into our hearts and minds. We need to pray the scriptures because they are true. Then we’ll see breakthroughs with our lives. We won’t worry about a cup of coffee or be scared of our next big decision in life.
RENEW
One of the most important scriptures I have read lately is Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Some don’t understand what “renew” means here, but I’ll explain. We can never learn enough about God’s word. It is an endless sea of spiritual knowledge. One scripture can unlock one breakthrough today and tomorrow it brings new meaning. That is renewing.
The problem is that we read the scripture quickly and take it in, but never get anything out of it. Or we think since we read it once we got everything. That’s pride and devil talking at the same time. We can never learn enough about God and in order to find his perfect will we must soak in scripture on an intentional basis. We should have God’s word in our minds throughout every moment of our days and then we’ll see God’s hand guiding us.
DON’T OVER ANALYZE
As all people tend to do, I over think situations. I come up with several different outcomes and possibilities. I try to solve my problems on my own, but realize quickly that I can’t do that. Only God holds solutions to our problems and the answers are in the scriptures. The answers are never with us.
2 Corinthians says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” When we over think our situations we are not relying on God’s truth. We are turning to our own knowledge and if the devil is lying to us that can be extremely bad. That is why all our thoughts must be captive to Christ.
So, step back and simplify things. Turn to the word and meditate on it. The true answers will come in God’s perfect will and timing.
LINING UP
Trying to discover God’s perfect will can be difficult. It is beyond our understanding what kind of plan he has for our lives. That’s why being in the word is so important. It is the only thing we know to be an absolute truth. So, we need to know and learn it so it is second nature to us. Then the light of Christ will illuminate our paths.
We need to make our everyday thoughts line up with God’s word. If it doesn’t agree with God’s word then it is wrong. Questions about regular or decaf won’t be in the Bible. That we’ll have to figure out for ourselves, but those scary decisions that we are afraid to make a mistake on won’t be tough anymore. We’ll gain strength and confidence through God’s word and our fears will bleed away.
Off The Cuff Christian 