Decision Making - God's way
As individuals and body of Christ how do we make decisions especially on weighty matters that has the potential to affect many lives and have far reaching consequences? Do we rush into a decision based on our own intuition; do we go by analyzing the pros and cons from a practical human stand point and come to a decision or do we really take time to wait upon the Lord and seek his face to know His will.
We see more and more organizations and churches jumping into making faulty decisions and then paying a huge prize for it later. These decisions are primarily driven by selfish motives or hidden personal agendas of self gratification or aggrandizement benefiting the few in some way or the other (the Indian Cricket body - BCCI and Srinivasan model) rather than keeping the long term good of the mission in mind or for the benefit of the people involved in general. Interestingly most of the time the justification given is either a sugar coated high claim of divine origin or immediate necessity which will for the time being keep some of the gullible followers into a misguided obedience and silence. Any attempt by the few discerning ones to question will be severely clamped down through manipulation, threat or might even result in being shunted out. This in effect is destroying the very fabric of missions, churches and organizations leading to low morale of the people involved, low impact, less fruits, no life transformation, high attrition rates and ultimately ending up as a monument.
What does the Bible talk about decision making? Do we have a model there? The answer as we all will echo is a resounding "yes" in fact Bible is full of them. Whether it be Moses the greatest leaders of all time seeking God's face to know the will of God for his people or the Prophet Elijah at the brook Kerith waiting on God to know God's will for the nation of Israel or King David calling out to God to know whether to follow and attack the enemies who have taken his family as captives or the example of the elders in the church at Antioch fasting and praying before setting apart and sending Paul & Barnabas; these are all great models of decision making. The greatest of all is Jesus Himself our ultimate model spending the whole night in prayer seeking to know His father's will before He chose his twelve disciples. What a powerful model to follow as His chosen leaders. We are called to Know His will in Romans 12:1&2, His perfect and pleasing will by surrendering ourselves and constantly renewing our minds and most importantly by not confirming to the patterns of this world which is eating into our minds and distorting our thinking and decision making.
Friends do we take time individually and corporately to seek God's face and wait upon Him to know His will before we make a decision. Do we spend time in fasting and prayer before we make up our mind on something that is important? If not it is high time we return to the Basics, to God's word and His principles on how we come to a decision whether it be big or small matter. God's work has to be done God's way not our way.
We see more and more organizations and churches jumping into making faulty decisions and then paying a huge prize for it later. These decisions are primarily driven by selfish motives or hidden personal agendas of self gratification or aggrandizement benefiting the few in some way or the other (the Indian Cricket body - BCCI and Srinivasan model) rather than keeping the long term good of the mission in mind or for the benefit of the people involved in general. Interestingly most of the time the justification given is either a sugar coated high claim of divine origin or immediate necessity which will for the time being keep some of the gullible followers into a misguided obedience and silence. Any attempt by the few discerning ones to question will be severely clamped down through manipulation, threat or might even result in being shunted out. This in effect is destroying the very fabric of missions, churches and organizations leading to low morale of the people involved, low impact, less fruits, no life transformation, high attrition rates and ultimately ending up as a monument.
What does the Bible talk about decision making? Do we have a model there? The answer as we all will echo is a resounding "yes" in fact Bible is full of them. Whether it be Moses the greatest leaders of all time seeking God's face to know the will of God for his people or the Prophet Elijah at the brook Kerith waiting on God to know God's will for the nation of Israel or King David calling out to God to know whether to follow and attack the enemies who have taken his family as captives or the example of the elders in the church at Antioch fasting and praying before setting apart and sending Paul & Barnabas; these are all great models of decision making. The greatest of all is Jesus Himself our ultimate model spending the whole night in prayer seeking to know His father's will before He chose his twelve disciples. What a powerful model to follow as His chosen leaders. We are called to Know His will in Romans 12:1&2, His perfect and pleasing will by surrendering ourselves and constantly renewing our minds and most importantly by not confirming to the patterns of this world which is eating into our minds and distorting our thinking and decision making.
Friends do we take time individually and corporately to seek God's face and wait upon Him to know His will before we make a decision. Do we spend time in fasting and prayer before we make up our mind on something that is important? If not it is high time we return to the Basics, to God's word and His principles on how we come to a decision whether it be big or small matter. God's work has to be done God's way not our way.
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