An Attitude of Prayer in Decision-Making

Life gets stressful sometimes and one of the things that contributes most to that stress is the necessity of making decisions.  Often we are confronted with two or more options that seem equally appealing for different reasons and we just don't know what to do.  I think a lot of us go into the decision-making process with the attitude of "I just want my decision and my actions to glorify God and not myself."  However, this mind set doesn't always make the decision any easier.


Amanda and I have had to make a lot of decisions lately, none of which were particularly easy.  The thought kept occurring to me that if God is a loving Father and only wants what's best for us, then why can't He just tell me which way to go?  The problem with that line of thinking is that He does, just not in the way most of us are used to communicating.

In Acts chapter 1, the apostles witnessed Jesus' ascension and then returned to Jerusalem.  Verse 14 says "All these [apostles] were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers."

STEP 1 = BEING CONTINUALLY UNITED IN PRAYER

Seems pretty basic right, but how often have you caught yourself only approaching God in prayer when you have an important decision to make?  How often has that approach involved only you and not your spouse?  How often has that approach consisted of petitioning God one time, not hearing an audible voice booming from Heaven, and giving up?  Me too.

Peter stood up and told the rest that another apostle needed to be appointed to replace Judas.  Based on a set of criteria, they proposed two men and then prayed this prayer:  "You, Lord, know the hearts of all; show which of these two You have chosen to take the place in this apostolic service that Judas left to go to his own place."  Verse 26 then says, "Then they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias.  So he was numbered with the 11 apostles."

No booming voice from Heaven.

No glowing halo enveloping Matthias.

No giant red tele-strator arrow pointing to him.

And Peter didn't later write in his epistles that choosing Matthias was stupid and they never should have done that.

They asked God to choose and then made the decision using their customary decision-making tool:  casting lots.  They prayed, then took action and trusted God with the results.

STEP 2 = TAKE ACTION AFTER YOU PRAY

I think way too often we make decision-making harder than it should be.  It will always have an element of difficulty because of the faith part.  But too often I (and I'm betting you too) become a victim of analysis paralysis instead of being united in prayer with our spouse (or whoever it is we're making this decision with) and then taking action while trusting God with the results.

So, next time you have a tough decision to make, spend some time united in prayer and trust God with the results.  When you do, tell me about it because I love stories of God answering prayer.