The Bible presents Christians with a variety of ways to communicate with God, alone and in a community of believers. It's like having a conversation with any friend, there's no fixed way they communicate. Sometimes it might be by face-to-face conversation, by phone, by letter, by e-mail, by a text message or via friends or family.
Christians believe that God can use those same methods. In addition, like good friends, the better a believer gets to know God, the easier it will be to discern God's plan when making decisions.
Ask Trusted Christian Leaders for Prayer and Advice
After Paul (named Saul of Tarsus at that time) was struck blind on the road to Damascus, he was told to go on to the city and then wait for Annanais for additional instructions. God told Annanais, in a vision, he was to go and pray with Paul. He became Paul’s mentor, providing advice and spiritual wisdom. The story of Paul starts in Acts 9.
While in high school, William thought God had called him to be a preacher. The leaders of his church were not convinced, but William went to Bible school anyway. After graduation, he again told people he was supposed to be a pastor, but now the church leaders and the teachers and administrators of the school said they didn’t think so. William tried to push his way into ministry, but everything he did fell apart. The mature Christians saw something in William's life that made them cautious. Years later, he still blamed people for preventing him from becoming a minister.
Verification of what God is saying has been required of those who spoke for God since the Old Testament times. Not everyone has discernment, the ability to make perceptive judgments or to hear God's voice accurately. Pooling information, wisdom, experience and creativity benefits everyone. Christians are told in the Bible to trust and care for each other. Reliance on God requires building trust in a community of believers.
Importance of Teaching Family Members How to Make Decisions
Many Bible-believing churches teach that the husband is the leader of his family. If the husband/father is domineering, he may not be willing to share the decision-making role, preferring to control everyone and everything. This is not a picture of a healthy Christian family.
In most minds, the ideal Christian family is a place where life-lessons can be taught by example and decision making can be learned. Young children should be given limited positive choices and then parents can explain the choices letting the child choose. When poor choices are made by a young person, a Christ-like father will be comforting yet allow his offspring to deal with the consequences of the decision. Then he will help the child understand why it was a poor choice.
In families where the husband/father is incapacitated or absent, coping with life can be difficult for the remaining partner and family. Not only must they suffer a loss, but they may have to live with the consequences of their own poor planning and decision making because they’ve never had the opportunity to practice making good decisions. Christians believe that God is able to guide even an innocent, naive decision maker if he or she seeks answers from God.
Christian families and larger communities of Christ-followers can help one another during the decision making process by sharing wisdom and praying for each other. Recognizing that all Christians – even the most devout – are still works in progress, enables the community to accept one another even when poor choices are made. Decision making is a learned skill. Life is a learning process, mistakes are inevitable.
More Ways Christians Can Discover God's Plan provides additional ways of finding God's plan when making decisions.
Mistie Shaw - Writing for nearly half a century, Shaw's interests and education meander from music to the military, and from faith to fun.
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