How to Make a Decision That Glorifies God
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I stood at a crossroad. I had decisions to make but felt paralyzed. I was eighteen years old, considering which university to choose for my undergraduate studies. I heard other believers say and had read in Christian living books that I needed to pray and listen for God’s response to my prayers. Others said I wouldn’t hear an audible response from God but would experience a “peace” (whatever that meant) around one of the options. Still others told me to ask God for a sign. I had already tried seeking my answer in Scripture by using concordances and Google searches, but God’s Word remained silent on this issue.
I once heard a story from a girl in a similar position as me who had prayed for a sign, and the next day in her prayer group someone mentioned the name of a university she was considering. She had gotten her sign and made her decision at that moment. I asked God to give me a similar sign, but I received none.
God didn’t intend for our decision-making process to be filled with mystery.
Perhaps you’re standing at a crossroad too. You’re unsure how to move forward. As a believer, you want to make a decision that is pleasing to God and will glorify him. Yet this decision-making process is hazy. Maybe you’re waiting, listening, and searching, but no discernible feelings of peace or voices or thoughts are transpiring. You feel like you’re navigating a dense green forest amidst thick fog with large roots and rocks at your feet. You’re feeling in the dark for something to lead you through, but there’s nothing tangible enough to grab.
What if I told you that it doesn’t have to be this confusing? What if it doesn’t have to be so murky, vague, and filled with so much guesswork? What if decision-making doesn’t always have to feel like a blind leap of faith into a dark pool with no sight of what lurks on the bottom?
God didn’t intend for our decision-making process to be filled with mystery. He gave us his Word to guide us in holiness—to show us what’s pleasing to him and what’s not. But what about where there is no law? While he didn’t make his Word like a concordance for looking up our specific problems and finding an exact solution, he did give us the gift of wisdom.
Biblical wisdom is “the art of living well.”
Wisdom isn’t a skill we can master with a few tips and tricks or lessons. It’s an art that’s learned with study, time, maturity, and experience. Pastor and author Zach Keele defines biblical wisdom as “the art of living well.”[1] It’s an art in the sense that the word wisdom connotes the idea of mastering special skills such as woodworking, sewing, or writing. But it’s also an art of living, in that it takes our skills and knowledge and applies them to our lives. In this way it equips us to live well, even amid hardship and difficulties.[2]
Wisdom is more than knowing right theology or what God commands. It’s also understanding how to use such knowledge in a righteous way. It’s the skill of applying God’s Word to whatever life’s circumstances may present and seeing where the nuances lie. It’s a humble, ever-growing knowledge.
Scripture teaches us how to be wise by teaching us goodness, holiness, and truth.
How do we grow in wisdom? If wisdom is the art of living well, we should turn no further than the book that shows us how to live a life pleasing to God. Scripture teaches us how to be wise by teaching us goodness, holiness, and truth. The Bible even has the entire book of Proverbs, which is dedicated to the nuances and skill of wisdom. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about the value of Scripture for living a godly life:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16–17)
The psalmist likewise proclaimed,
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. (Ps. 19:7)
The Bible comes from the very breath of God. If you wish to hear the voice of God and know what he wants to say to you, simply open his Word and read it, and through it the Holy Spirit will teach and instruct you and help you apply it to your particular life circumstances.
Wisdom is found in submitting to and learning from the maturity of older and wiser believers.
Wisdom also recognizes when to turn to people who are wiser than ourselves. As Proverbs says,
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. (11:14)
Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” (15:22)
By turning to experts, family members, respected church leaders, and fellow Christians, we can find an abundance of wisdom for our decisions. Pride believes that we know best—or perhaps that God would only speak to us—but humility and its partner wisdom tell us to seek the counsel of many. Wisdom is found in submitting to and learning from the maturity of older and wiser believers.
Wisdom is also found in believers who may not necessarily be older than we are, people who can provide another perspective for us. The apostle Paul describes the church as a body made up of different parts and requiring one another to function properly (1 Cor. 12:12–31). As a hand, you don’t have the same knowledge, experience, or perspective as a foot, eye, or shoulder. You need the other pieces of the body to strengthen you where you are weak and teach you where you lack wisdom. We are not only individuals chosen and loved by God but also members of the collective body of believers whom God loves and leads. Look to these members and seek their wisdom.
Faith trusts in the clear and true promises of God and exercises proper wisdom and prudence with each step it takes.
I’ve pursued unwise decisions before because I felt “the nudging” of the Holy Spirit. I’ve watched others do the same. Sometimes we believe the riskier or more outrageous the idea, the more likely it came from God. But that’s not the case. God isn’t just power and glory—he’s the Creator of wisdom and order, too.
We’ve been led to believe that faith means stepping out into the dangerous, ravenous forest on our own with no torch, weapons, or tools. If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not exercising faith in your decision-making, they say. Yet that’s not the ordinary picture Scripture paints for us. There are times when faith does mean proclaiming your faith to hostile people or holding to Christ even when faced with deadly persecution. But that doesn’t mean our faith must be blind and unprepared, expecting God to provide miraculously and do the impossible (though he certainly can).
Rather, faith trusts in the clear and true promises of God and exercises proper wisdom and prudence with each step it takes. We can search Scripture, ask godly friends and leaders, and assess our options before deciding. We can take time to slowly process and turn ideas over in our minds and wait until we are confident in our decision. That’s still faith in God, and no less faithful. Rather, in living by such careful wisdom instead of rash decisions that bring about many problematic results, we can bring more glory to God.
Brother or sister in Christ, seek to grow in wisdom, and don’t feel ashamed that you’re not living by strange, indiscernible feelings or taking risky jumps of blind faith. Make each decision with God-given and Spirit-led wisdom, which comes from his Word and fellowship within his beloved church.
This article was originally published on Beautiful Christian Life on July 11, 2022.
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[1] Zach Keele, The Unfolding Word: The Story of the Bible from Creation to New Creation (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2020), 206.
[2] Ibid, 206–207.
