Decision Making – Revisited

By Michael Griego on February 21, 2025 • ( 1 )

We all struggle with decision making. Even supposedly with God on our side as Christians, in many situations we actually make decisions like non-Christians. What’s the problem here? ◊

For anyone who considers themselves to be a Christian, decision making is still a difficult thing to work through.

Non-Christians really don’t have to worry about whether or not they are “in God’s will” – they just make rational (or irrational) decisions and run with it.

They’ll attribute it to the universe, or the stars, or just plain good or bad luck.

A Christian with a true Biblical worldview sees design, purpose, meaning, and a loving God behind all things in life. Of course, it’s naive to believe that all Christians view the world this way. Recent research from George Barna confirms that only 4% (!) of all Christians have a Biblical worldview—a drop of one third from the 6% recorded just three years earlier.¹

This explains why so many Christians struggle with making decisions in a way that aligns with what God would want to have happen. Many believe that God is only partially involved or that they can depend on God only superficially. Essentially the issue here is that they themselves are the ones in control of their lives.

And they like it better that way.

Which begs a few key questions about our decision making as Christians:

Does God really care about all of our decisions?
How do we know what God wants us to do?
What happens if we miss it and make the wrong decision?

We’ll address each of these questions.

Does God Really Care About All of Our Decisions?
This question actually gets to the root of the issue as to whether God even exists and for what purpose. If one is leaning toward God not caring about all our decisions except the big ones, where does one draw the line between large and small? Where to live? What school to attend? What church to attend? What job? Who to marry? etc., etc., What about what to eat for breakfast? What to watch on TV? Where to go to dinner? What clothes to wear? etc., etc.,

Again, if God exists, does he even care about these issues? Why would God care? What difference does it even make at all?

Even Christians struggle here to see the need to involve God in arbitrary matters of life. But a Biblical Worldview holds that God created all that is in and out of this world. And that God is in control:

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. – Proverbs 19:21
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. – Proverbs 16:9
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. – Psalm 115:3
In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. – Job 12:10
“I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” – Isaiah 45:7

So, yes, God cares about all matters, big and small. It is a matter of our relinquishing control to what God would have us do.

How Do We Know What God Wants Us To Do?
If God has a pathway for all things, how do we get the plan? Actually, there are 3 ways to get the blueprint, or something close to it. They are not as trite as you may think:

Study the Bible. If we know God through the reading, study, and understanding of the Word of God, the Bible, we will have an understanding of what He wants for our lives. With anything short of a foundational, if not thorough, knowledge of the Bible, and therefore an understanding of what is His purpose for us and mankind, one is going to easily be led by people and the world culture who do not know and understand God and the Bible.
Pray for Everything. If we pray and take all issues large and small to God and fully surrender to His Lordship, we will develop a posture of humility before God and a receptivity to the Holy Spirit. This Spirit of God moves and lives within the heart, mind, and soul of all men and women who have acknowledged Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died an atoning death for the sins of mankind to reconcile us back to God and rose from the dead to sit in authority over the kingdom of God. This prayer, for anything, acknowledges the Lordship of Christ and our submission to His ways and plans and can empower us living under His authority over our own domain in the active kingdom of God.
Seek His Answer. We can hear, see, sense, feel, understand, and experience answers to our prayer for right decision making. Sometimes answers come in open or closed windows or doors, sometimes through thoughts or senses, words from others, or God’s Word. Does God care what kind of pizza you order? Doesn’t hurt to ask and develop a habit of turning to God for all things in life, big and small.

God is a God of details. We see this in the Scriptures. Like a Good Father, He cares and loves us too much to leave us alone. It’s on us though to pursue God and reach out. Otherwise, we’re like a wayward child who drifts off by themself and tries to manage the world and life on their own.

God didn’t create us for that.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” – Matthew 7:7
“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” – Jeremiah 29:12
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. – Psalm 145:18
O You who hear prayer, to You all men come. – Psalm 65:2
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us… – Ephesians 3:20

So, yes, we learn to seek God and listen carefully for God’s guidance in all things. It’s a mindshift and a way of life.

What Happens If We Miss It and Make the Wrong Decision?
So what happens if we don’t do it right and make a wrong move? Does God zap us? Actually, I think it’s just a miss. And God does what He wants to do in other ways. He may have wanted to use us, but we were not paying attention. No penalty, just a missed opportunity. I do believe there are second chances. God is always long on patience and gives us a lot of grace. Our loss if we miss it.

Here are 3 things to do:

Confess the Miss. Tell God that you think you may have messed up and made a wrong turn. Repent and give it another go. Lots of people in the Bible messed up big time and lived to tell about it.
Ask God to Teach You for Next Time. God loves a humbled heart. When we submit to God’s authority and ask Him what we can work on or do better next time, we move closer to Him. We can learn to become an obedient son or daughter to a loving Good Father who wants to bless us and use us to be a blessing. Sometimes it takes making mistakes to grow and learn. Sometimes it takes a lifetime.
Don’t Wallow in the Past. Mistakes of the past, opportunities lost, sins of our youth are all potential anchors that the Enemy will use to destroy what God has restored. Recognize the lies in your head that remind you of the times when you did not walk with God, or you turned your back on Him in defiance. God in His mercy and grace has forgiven you and restored you wholly back into relationship with Him in love. We are free to go and sin no more. Never forget that you are like a prisoner set free.

God is creator and savior. We, like prodigal children, have run our own way. Yet God waited and waits still patiently for us to return home into His loving arms like a Good Father welcoming home a wayward child – a lost lamb. God’s forgiveness is once and for all and sufficient to save us. Never forget the gift. Pick yourself up and present yourself now as a living sacrifice to the One True God who saved you.

Don’t live a life of regret – live a life of one restored.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9
“Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” – Luke 7:48
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. – Ephesians 1:7
“For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” – Hebrews 8:12
“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. – Isaiah 43:25

So, yes, we can overcome mistakes and missed opportunities. God is very forgiving. Forgive yourself and step into the light as a reborn son and daughter of the Living God of all things.

Now go and make good decisions, grounded in the Word of God, led by the Spirit of God, and enabled to reflect the renewed life of one forgiven and set free to be a useful vessel by God for His kingdom’s sake.

Are you positioned to make good, God-led decisions?

____________________________________

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. – Isaiah 55:8-11

^{1 Biblical Worldview Among U.S. Adults Drops 33% Since Start of COVID-19 Pandemic}^,^{by Tracy Munsil, Feb 28, 2023, American Worldview Inventory, CRC, George Barna.}