Faith and Decision Making

I often talk with college students about making decisions about their future or just decisions in general. I’ve been talking about this with one of the women I’m working with now. I follow a blog of some friends who have an incredible story but Matt wrote this post this week and thought it was so good I wanted to share it. You should go to his blog and read it in it’s entirety but here is the part I loved most.

When faced with any decision or pivot in life that requires faith I take great comfort in scripture.

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
(Proverb 19:21)

Would I have ever planned or even thought that I would be working as a founder of an organization that helps special needs children?  A thousand times no.

The Lord’s purpose prevails.

When faced with a big decision or what I continue to call a “pivot”, I always look for lightning.  That is I always pray and sometimes fast- asking God to make clear the right decision.  And although, I do believe we should engage those practices, He never has given me the lightning that I desired.

Instead, unfailingly, at the end of the wrestling, I am left to make the decision.  I give it to Him, I ask Him for lightning, none comes, and I must do something.  And so I move out in faith on the road ahead.

If God always made it as clear as I wanted, I would have little use of faith; but when I am unsure and unsteady, then I step out- desperately counting on the fact that an invisible hand is holding mine- one I cannot see, but believe in nonetheless.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
(Hebrews 11:6)

With a few pivots under my belt, and more than I would prefer as of late, I have noticed a peculiar trend.  The more times I move out in desperate faith and survive, the easier it becomes to do so on one hand, but also the more difficult it becomes- as the Lord always asks for more.  Conversely, in looking around, the fewer times one steps out in baffling faith, the more likely their lives are to make sense and look appealing- yet, in truth, these are the lives that sometimes cannot figure out why they are unhappy or bored with life.  Life is bland for these folks; God is not enough.  But this is a reaction to a life lived outside of faith as a requirement.  From where I stand today, life may seem daunting, even too much at times- but it is anything but boring.

Walk in faith.

Well said Matt, well said.

1 thought on “Faith and Decision Making”

  1. Particularly timely for me today. I have no idea what God wants me to do or where He wants me to go, but “here” is awfully uncomfortable. Why, then, am I so reluctant to let go and start walking?

    “Known,” even the uncomfortable “known,” is more appealing to me than that scary UNKNOWN. I fill my head with unseen monsters.

    Yikes! And thanks!

    Reply

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