What are the biblical principles for solid decision-making?

It may, however, be said, in reply to all this, that we cannot expect to find a text of scripture to guide us in the matter of our movements, or in the thousand little details of daily life. Perhaps not; but there are certain great principles laid down in scripture which, if properly applied, will afford divine guidance even where we might not be able to find a particular text. And not only so, but we have the fullest assurance that our God can and does guide His children, in all things. "The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord." "The meek will he guide in judgement; and the meek will he teach his way." "I will guide thee with mine eye." He can signify His mind to us as to this or that particular act or movement. If not, where are we? How are we to get on? How are we to regulate our movements? Are we to be drifted hither and thither by the tide of circumstances? Are we left to blind chance, or to the mere impulse of our own will?

Thank God, it is not so. He can, in His own perfect way, give us the certainty of His mind, in any given case; and, without that certainty, we should never move. Our Lord Christ — all homage to His peerless Name! — can intimate His mind to His servant as to where He would have him to go and what He would have him to do; and no true servant will ever think of moving or acting without such intimation. We should never move or act in uncertainty. If we are not sure, let us be quiet and wait. Very often it happens that we harass and fret ourselves about movements that God would not have us to make at all. A person once said to a friend, "I am quite at a loss to know which way to turn." Then, "Don't turn at all" was the friend's wise reply.

We do not say that we shall always be guided in such a way that we are quite sure, and conscious of it at the time. When the Word of God plainly directs us, and we obey it, we may indeed be sure. In the smaller details of life, when it is a question of where we shall go and what we shall do, we may yet be most happily guided if our state be right, if in meekness and obedience we seek not our own pleasure but the pleasure of God. He has pledged Himself to guide us, and He will do so. The only thing that will hinder is the assertion of our own will or pleasure. If we go forward in simplicity and self-judgment, making our decisions with a desire for His glory, we shall again and again have reason to look back with thankfulness, discovering that indeed His hand has led us.

Hence the all-importance of prayerfully using scripture, as we may read in Luke 10:39 - 11:4, and Acts 6:4. "Let my cry come near before thee, O Jehovah; give me understanding according to thy word." This is as necessary to glorify Him in our souls as in our service of His name. "Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." Zeal and energy otherwise expose to habitual danger. As men of God, we ought to trust neither our own hearts nor the direction of others. We ought to obey God rather than men. It is due to Him that we thus honour Him; and, looking to the Lord, we are entitled to count on the Holy Spirit to join His help to our weakness. Is He not a spirit of power, of love, and of sobriety? He will not fail to guide sons of God who distrust themselves and cry to our God and Father in the Lord's name. But it is through His word, and not our feeling and ideas. "I have refrained my feet from every evil path, that I might keep thy word."

It may be asked, How can I ascertain the will of God? First of all there must in such a case be the willing mind. This the Lord Himself declared — "If any one wills to do his will he shall know of the teaching whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 6:17). Coming to the scriptures with the prayer, already quoted, of the psalmist, "Teach me to do thy will, O God (Ps. 143:10), the docile spirit is instructed, so that he may stand perfect and fully assured in all that will (Col. 4:12). The apostle Paul desired on behalf of the saints at Colosse that they might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (Col. 1:9). There is first the hearing and then the doing. In the Lord's words, "My mother and my brethren are those which hear the word of God, and do it" (Luke 8:21).

Now our question is, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? What wilt Thou have me to do with my time, my strength, my money, my ability?" "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct they paths" (Prov. 2:6). But the direction must come from the word of God. Sometimes we do not know what to do — we want to do what is right and we don't know what is right. Well, you lack wisdom, don't you? and "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5). It shall be told you, "This is the way, walk ye in it" (Isa. 30:21).

Some now gone home have impressed the advice, "If you do not know what to do, stand still." Wait on the Lord — do not act for the sake of acting. Saul wrecked his whole life through not waiting. If I were to say, "I will be with you at the seventh hour," I should mean any time between 7 and 8 o'clock; Saul interpreted Samuel's appointed time in the very narrowest sense. He said he "forced himself" (1 Sam. 13:12); but men do not need forcing to take their own way. If we wait on the Lord in subjection of will, His guidance is sure to come. Over and over again have I known a scripture come very clearly to my mind in a case of perplexity. Not that the Bible is a dictionary, to tell me what I am to do at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning, for instance. Yet it does tell me. Do not seek to please yourself — that is a very sure guide. "Even Christ pleased not himself" (Rom. 15:3). Even in the Lord's work there is a danger of doing what it pleases me to do, and of leaving what I do not like. What is my motive? First I am to please the Lord — am I doing this in the name of the Lord Jesus? Then I am to please my neighbour, but only to edification; otherwise it becomes mere man-pleasing. "If I yet pleased men," says the apostle, "I should not be the servant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10). How can I best use any ability I may have for the comfort and upbuilding of the saints? These are questions we do well to ask ourselves.

In this great matter, Colossians 1:9 always has been an encouragement to me. It deals with important issues related to this matter of understanding God's will: (1) Is it not through close communion with God, through the study of and meditation on His Word, that we may become exercised and also informed about a particular area in our lives or about a specific point? (2) Is it not through prayer, the expression of communion and dependence, together with the study of His Word, that we receive a confirmation or indication about the way we should go? (3) Is it not, also, through the work of the Holy Spirit, using the Word and prayers (our own and others'), that we get peace of mind with regard to the carrying out of God's will? (4) Is it not our conscience, exercised and formed by God's Word and Spirit, that would also be a tool for the indication of God's will? (5) Do we not rely on the good advice of

those we know are living in close communion with the Lord, that we find further help? (6) However. we have to compare counsel and advice from others with the Word. and with the leading of the Spirit in our lives. In the same way we have to check our own thoughts. David's prayer in Psalm 139, when we make it our own, is a real help in this process. (7) This means practically also that we have to take time, in order to come to a conclusion regarding God's will in our lives. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength! (Isa. 40:31).

On the other hand, when we live in close fellowship with God, and our constant prayer is to be really dependent upon Him, we may trust Him, and He leads us, (even when we do not have time for a long process of revision and meditation). However, impulsive actions are often a proof of the work of the flesh. Here is another question we might ask ourselves: is there unjudged sin in my life? is there something I don't want to give up, although I know that God wants me to? For those who have given themselves to the will of God, there is this reassurance; that He will lead us, and His eye will be upon us.

Are we to say, 'I will not act on what I do know, till thou tellest me all my course on to glory'? The Lord continually exercises His children, giving light enough to make a thing a matter of plain Christian obedience, and not showing all the happy, and blessed, and full consequences till faith acts on that: it is just a holy and excellent trial of faith. He says in principle, 'I am the door.' The mind may say, 'Where to?' The Lord answers, 'I am the door;' and wherever the soul finds Christ, or the will of Christ, if walking in faith, it trusts that, and the blessing follows. It soon goes in and out, and finds pasture. Abraham went out, not knowing whither he went. It is better to trust God in doing His will than the consequences which doing His will may produce, however blessed. Nor shall he that followeth Him walk in darkness, though he may only know that in the very next footsteps Christ has gone before him.

443 If we follow the counsels of God through His word, we shall avoid many mistakes. He can save us still when we err, but it will be through suffering and loss. Israel refused to ascend the hill of the Amorites, and had therefore to remain thirty-eight years in the desert. Here, Paul's companions would not listen to his words, which were those of God, and they lost everything, except life. Their deliverance, it is evident, came from God alone, and was effected for the honour of His servant, whose words they had despised. It is always important for us to ascertain the will of God before entering any untried path. If we are assured of this, the difficulties will be only difficulties; and the help of God is enough to overcome them. But if we are not sure about His will, then doubt and weakness arise in the heart, because faith to count on God for help is not there, since we are not certain that the path is according to His will.

But there is another motive beside, that of duty to our brother. Our love to our brother is to be a motive. We are to consider what it means to put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in a brother's way. Let it be the lightest thing imaginable, the use of only meat to him unclean, yet our use of it may lead him into that which he has not faith for, and how could love possibly do this? A terrible thing it is to lead a person to act without conscience; that is, therefore, to sin against God. It is a thing which will necessarily have influence, if self-judgment do not come in, upon the whole character of his life and ways. We may be for ourselves doing that which is perfectly lawful to us, (in itself lawful,) and yet the question of a brother's conscience with regard to it cannot be ignored. We are not forced to eat or drink, because it is our privilege to do so. The Kingdom of God does not in its character consist of eating and drinking and such like things, but in "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Here the one who is, while free in his inmost soul, a bond-servant to Christ, — (the apostle puts the strongest term) — will not allow the freedom that he really has to prevent him forgetting that he is bound in every way to use his freedom to glorify Christ with it; this man is "well pleasing to God and approved of men." We are to pursue, therefore, the things that are for peace, and the things that are for edification with regard to others. Think of destroying God's work in another for the sake of a piece of meat; for while the things themselves may be clean, it still is evil to the man who eats while he stumbles over it. "It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is weak." You may say, you have faith. Well, he says, but faith is after all the lowliest of things. Faith is realized dependence, is it not? Act in it in lowliness, "Have it to thyself before God;" and remember that, "Happy is he who does not bring judgment upon himself in that which be approveth;" but this is the very thing that the doubter does. He is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; "for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." How important is this principle, and in how wide a sphere! How important it is that we should so act in every case as not to induce the weakest or those nearest to us, — where our conduct is apt to have the strongest weight, — to walk without God! It will be no excuse for them before Him, to say that they have followed us. God's will is not so far to seek and not so hard to be understood as to allow of excuse here on the part of any, but the point is clearly especially for the strong, that they are not, by their strength, really to force others into paths, which, because doubtful to them, are necessarily wrong, even though the path looked at in itself may be a right one.

Romans 14 however, shows fully the need of exercise of every individual's conscience before the Lord, and for the consideration of the consciences of others. Various indeed are the conditions of conscience in various saints of God — much no doubt depending upon understanding and growth in grace. If one were to claim that conscience allows him to do what he knows the Word of God condemns, that is not conscience at all, but gross self-will. It is of utmost importance that we have consciences exercised and formed by the Word of God.