"Decision Making Skills"Do you have good decision making skills? The decisions we make often chart the course for the rest of our lives.
Most of us at one time or another have found ourselves wondering what God would have us do. Is this the person God would have me to marry? Is this business deal right for me? Should I change jobs, or perhaps move? To develope good decision making skills involves seeking Spiritual guidance and in order to do this we must first be Born Again. This is the best decision anyone can possibly make. When we are born again the Holy Spirit enters in, along with the benefit of His Spiritual guidance. This means that every minute of every day He is available to help us in our decision making process. Satan's purpose is to take as many to hell as possible and to bring unhappiness and harm to all the rest. But it doesn't have to be that way. We must learn to pray, ask, and seek His will; then to listen and recognized the prompting and guidance of the Holy Spirit. God's Children are not ignorant of the wiles of the devil and know that he will always do his best to interfere with our decisions, but the indwelling Holy Spirit who guides and directs our lives is much more powerful than Satan (1 John 4:4). A part of the decision making process is to seek confirmation that it is God's voice we are hearing. And how do we do that? Recently while visiting an elderly aunt, now beyond the age of 93, she played the piano. She still plays beautifully and only struck one wrong key. Yet, this one note had a distinctly different sound and stood out from all the rest. So it is with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Just as one sour note stands out from the rest, a wrong choice or evil spirit will not find peace with the Holy Spirit. They will not agree. This creates a feeling of uneasiness and apprehension; An inward feeling, or "knowing" that something is just not right. When the Spirit is of God it will have a ring of truth, and you will have peace within. Confirmation may come through another Christian, something you read, or something may happen that reflects on your situation and could have only come from God. It takes time to develop these decision making skills, and the decision making process takes time, so if possible, don't allow yourself to be pushed into hasty decisions. Nevertheless, there are decisions one may be forced to make in a timely manner. If you find yourself in such a situation use such time as you have to pray and listen for the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit, then make your decision! It will be the best decision you could make under those circumstances. Even at our best we sometimes seem to miss His directions, but that is not the end. The wonderful truth is that with God it is always just the beginning! If when you have sought God's will and direction and still make what appears to be a wrong decision He will not allow it to wreck or ruin your life. Hindsight is 20/20 and looking back I now realize that decisions I thought were mistakes may not have been bad decision after all. At any rate God knew I was sincere and simply nudged me back onto His chosen path. He always brings us through. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). Hold onto your faith, keep believing and praying; look for confirmation, and especially the inner peace from the Holy Spirit, and you will soon have great decision making skills. Blessings, Samuel |