TODAY! 21 day Devotion by: H.R. Lister
Day 14: Decisions, Decisions
-How many of you have ever made a bad decision?
-How many of you had this gut feeling that you were about to make the bad decision before you made it?
(article excerpt)
Sometimes deep down, we’re aware that the choice we’re about to make isn’t the best decision. Yet, rather than change course, we offer excuses to justify what we’re about to do.
Instead of preventing ourselves from heading down the wrong path–or admitting we made a mistake–we defensively attempt to rationalize our behavior. Ultimately, we keep digging ourselves deeper.
Although it sounds a bit ridiculous, everyone behaves impulsively, gives into immediate gratification, or overlooks risk sometimes.
Here are 5 Statements that let you know you're about to make a bad decision…
1. “I Deserve to be Happy”…. This is a somewhat true statement… As an American, you have the right to pursue happiness, and as a Christian, Jesus paid for Joy unspeakable and full of glory, and peace that passes all understanding… But this statement is often made by someone in defense of a poor decision… Like being in a toxic relationship, or taking on more debt for their immediate satisfaction, and forfeiting long term happiness…
2. I’d rather beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission…. What you are saying, is that you are willing to purposely break the rules to get what you want to put off confrontation for a later date, where you will offer a fake apology….(this way of thinking is deceitful, rebellious, self-serving, and not a God quality in us, and will most certainly cause us to make bad decisions)
3. You only live once…. is a way of making light of taking a dangerous risk that is unnecessary… (it amazes me when someone dies doing something that was unnecessary and people say things like: “The good die young”, “God needed another angel”, “The Lord must have felt like it was his time”, “at least he died doing what he loved..”) (taking unnecessary risk for self gratification and pride is not only poor decision making, it's a poor use of the life that God gave you to use for His kingdom)
-There has to be a fine balance between risk and reward
4. I’m just being honest…. Most of the time this statement comes at the expense of someone else to fill the need in your life to prove a point or to take your opportunity to kick someone while they're down, to put yourself above another….
(article excerpt)
-Before delivering criticism or negative feedback, balance your desire to be direct with the other person’s right to be treated with respect. Whether you’re masking your insecurity by putting someone else down, or you’re lashing out because you’re upset, your disrespectful demeanor will speak more about your character than your claims of taking the moral high ground.
5. I don’t care what anyone thinks or (it’s not anyone's business, what I do)…. (I’m not talking about being a people pleaser, but you should be concerned about the type of person you are… This does not mean that everyone will agree with your decisions or that you should take a poll before you make a decision, but if the people who truly love you and are concerned about you, bring to your attention some of your poor decision making, you should be open and honest and not defensive…
-We can’t help the decisions that others make, but what we can do is watch in our own lives to see if these attitudes are present when we’re making decisions, so that we can make the right decisions….
How do we make the right decisions?
Joel 3:14 “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision..”
-We know that this passage is a prophetic word about the coming great harvest but nevertheless, there are multitudes of people in a valley of decisions….
-We need to know how to make THE RIGHT DECISION!!!!
-There’s a right way and wrong way to make decisions…. Thank God we have some help in making decisions…
-Your decisions determine your direction in life…. And your direction determines your destiny…
-that’s not “super-spiritual, mystic talk….
-if you got out a map and made a decision to go to colorado from here, your direction would be north/west, and your destiny (destination) would be COLORADO!!!!!
-When you make a decision, it sets you on a course that arrives at a certain destination….
-Most people have adopted this mentality that if they’re a good person and they believe in Jesus, then their destiny in life will just turn out…. (no faith, no believing, no course of action on their part, except doing what “FEELS RIGHT”…)
Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, But the end is the way of death…”
-How many of you know that your “seemer” can be off!!!
-We need something more reliable than, “what seems right”….
-THANK GOD WE DO!!!!
John 16:13 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
-There is a way that seems right and there is a way that IS RIGHT!!!
-The way that seems right can accidentally be right from time to time…(a blind hog finds an acorn every once and a while)…
-That doesn’t mean we settle on it and make a doctrine out of it for everyone and in every situation….
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope…”
(AMP) “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome…”
-God has a plan and a purpose for you, He knows what it is and He wants you to know what it is…
-He’s not hiding it from you, He’s hiding it IN HIM, for you!!!!
-Today’s Christian, needs to be able to OWN every decision He/She makes….
-to many people are relying on the next book, the next message, the next church to make their decisions for them…..
-People need to grow up, seek the counsel of the Most High, make their decision based on a clear conscience that they heard from God, confirmed it in His word, and then acted on that word….
James 1:5-8 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6) but let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7) FOR LET NOT THAT MAN SUPPOSE that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8) he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways…”
-Many times we won’t ask in Faith, in fear that we won’t be able to handle what the Lord is telling us to do…
-we’re afraid that He’ll ask us to lay down something we enjoy….
-Instead we stay in “SUPPOSE”, we suppose that since we’re God’s kids, things are just going to work out…
-Being a Child of God only gives you access to the promises of God, you’ve got to make the decision to walk in the direction of His destination for your life!!!
-This is why prayer is so important to you doing the will of God….
The Apostle Paul Prayed:
Ephesians 1:17-18 “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling….”
Colossians 1:9 “I do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding….”
-this is why it’s so important to pray for your kids and grandkids, to call out their names, point to their pictures and proclaim that they know what the will of God for their life is and that they make the decision to go HIS DIRECTION!!!!
-The plan of God is not revealed to your five senses first… They are revealed to your spirit, by the Holy Spirit!!!!