"Help! I don't know what to do!"
There are five questions, based on five Bible verses that are extremely helpful in making decisions.
Principle #1: What does God's Word say?
Every decision should be made within the boundaries of God's Word; in fact, it should be our goal for all decisions to be made there.
"Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, 'If you abide in my Word you are My disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.'" John 8:31-32
You mean the Bible can tell me what color of shirt to wear? While it certainly does deal with the topic of dress, it does not reveal what color of shirt we should wear on a given day. However, it does reveal that as we live within the boundaries of God's Word we have certain Christian liberties that includes personal choice. These would include such decisions as shirt color, fottball teams, make of cars, etc.
Let me give you a couple of examples of common, contemporary decisions that can be made within the boundaries of God's Word: driving the speedlimit and choosing business partners.
"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are from God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God and will bring judgment on themselves." Romans 13:1-2 Oops! Speeding seems like a trivial thing, expecially if one doesn't speed more than five mph over the speed limit (knowing they won't be stopped for this violation), but the violation of God's absolute is not insignificant.
"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteouisness with lawlessness? And what communion does light have with darkness?" II Corinthians 6:14 Many times I have witnessed believers unequally yoked to unbelievers in business and each time the believer suffers financially, morally, or in some other way. Of course, this is true with any "unequally yoked" relationship including marriage and friendships.
There are 1,189 chapters, approximately 31,000 verses and over 800,00 words in the Bible. The sheer volume poses a problem for decision making since it is impossible to consider them all. However, there are a few questions based on Scriptures that might serve as a "check and balances" for our decisions if we aren't too sure about the specific verses to consider.
See "Five Biblical Decision Making Questions/Principles" (2)
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