As you know from reading this blog, we are going through a season of making decisions and it has caused me to go over my principles for decision making all over again. I don’t like change, so having the Lord as part of our decision making process goes a long way in helping me deal with the associated anxiety that comes with change. Often, the next step is not clear for us. Often we think or have a feeling of what to do next, but from our past experience we don’t trust our feelings and so we are not sure what to do.
God would not want us to make decisions based on feelings, but wants us to have all the guidance and facts in order to be confident in our decisions.
In Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah does not immediately act on his initial feeling to buy the field of Anathoth, even though it came to him in his “quiet time.” Probably because it was outside Jerusalem, a city besieged by the Babylonians and Jeremiah himself was imprisoned in the palace for announcing God’s judgement before the Babylonian exile of Judah. It also involved the public exchange of money, and the land, being captured was not a good investment (Jeremiah knew and had been announcing that the people were going into exile).
Jeremiah used his own intelligence, and naturally questioned what he thought he had heard from the Lord.
So he waited for the Lord to confirm His words to him, before taking action.
Jeremiah observed what was happening to him and around him. Then, when his cousin bought the external evidence of God’s direction, he “knew that this was the word of the Lord.” (verse 8) and it confirmed what he felt (or knew) inside already.
Jeremiah waited until God confirmed his feelings and thoughts though a providential act, then with a clear view of facts he worked. Notice, Jeremiah didn’t go around announcing what He thought God was telling him to do, or go about taking action to buy the field, instead He waited until the Lord confirmed what he was understanding in his Spirit. There is benefit in keeping quiet in what we perceive from the Lord, because then, when we receive the Lord’s confirmation, we know that this direction is really from the Lord.
God then used Jeremiah’s conviction to bring faith to others in verse 15. By buying the land, Jeremiah was taking a faith step based on his conviction that the people would eventually return to Jerusalem from exile, “Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land” God declares (verse 15).
It is an important point to remember: Often we act when we have a feeling on a matter, instead of waiting for confirmation of God’s mind on the matter and only then acting.
We need to listen to the Shepherds personal voice to us, like Paul demonstrates again in Acts 16:6-10. Paul knew that they were not to go to Asia, so he tried to go to the region of Bithynia but found he could not. He continued on to Troas, a coastal city, which was in the opposite direction of Bithynia and waited. He LISTENED and EXAMINED God’s providential work in their circumstances, how God blocked the way to Bithynia and Asia. He waited in Troas, until he had a clear vision in order to fully understand the mind of God. Then once the dream confirmed his feelings, he proceeded to Macedonia.
God will confirm what we think or feel He is telling us.
Don’t decide in your heart what you will or will not do, without waiting for God to make things clear and confirm it. Be sure of the way. Get HIS MIND ON THE MATTER. As long as the way is not clear, there is no call to action. God holds Himself accountable for all the results of keeping you exactly where you are. I don’t know where I found this, but I wrote this in my journal:
Wherever God’s finger points, His hands will clear the way.
In ways we do not always anticipate, God will lead the way.
- Have you ever had a sense of what God wanted you to do and then had God confirm it for you with circumstances and events around you? Or do you know of a person in your life that shares testimony of how God led them through circumstances and events to confirm what they believed in their hearts?
- Are you a person that relies on your feelings and emotions to guide you, or are you a person that will seek out God’s Mind on a matter before action? Start today to involve God in your decision making processes.
Lord thank you that You love me and are intimately involved in my life. Thank you that when we ask for wisdom and guidance, You are quick to show us the way in which we should walk. Please forgive me for all the times I have made decisions without consulting You in the process and then came running when things didn’t turn out well. Please help me to make wise decisions, to consult Your word, pray, ask wise fellow believers and listen for Your guidance. My feelings are often clouded by my own fears, attitudes and motives, but I know that You will guide me on Your path for my life by confirming what my heart and spirit understands from You. I confess that I am confident in my decision making because You guide me and watch over me and tell me the way that I should go.
Don’t Make Decisions Like This
Active Decision Making
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