Was That a Good Decision?
Good Morning,
Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 1 Sam. 15:22
Last week we talked about an observation from the book of Ruth regarding how God weaves himself into the periods of uncertainty we face in life. The ‘meanwhile” moments if you will. In addition to the demonstrations of character and loyalty there is another very important lesson we need to take away from this story. Let’s dig in a bit.
Question: How do you judge whether a decision you made was a good one; especially spiritual decisions where God is calling you to something? Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz all made difficult choices out of integrity and honor to God. Things did turn out well for them. Even people from the outside saw God’s providence and blessed them.
What if however, Boaz would not have been receptive to Ruth? Would that have made her decision to be faithful to Naomi, leave her own country and choose Jehovah as her God a bad decision? This is where we need to be careful about how we assess the “rightness” of a spiritual decision.
As we talked last week, the choices these people made were made without the certainty of a desired outcome. They did what was right and were still left to trust God for the outcomes. They said yes because that was the only part of the decision they had control over. And when you think about it, it’s the only part we have control over too. Yet what made the choice a good one was obedience not outcome. Faithfulness and obedience themselves are honoring to God. In the verse above, it is what God most desires from his followers.
When we say yes to God, it not only makes our decision a good one, but there is a supernatural peace that comes with it. About 10 years ago my wife and I made a big decision to shut down our business and move from Indiana to Colorado for a ministry position. While there were certainly some great moments, the move overall didn’t work out exactly like we thought it would. Yet to this day we have no doubt that we made the right decision because we said yes. Yes, is what made the choice right, not the outcome of yes. The outcomes of yes are in God’s hands not ours. The fact is, when God calls you there are only two choices, Yes or No. The peace that comes with saying yes is irreplaceable. He will always sustain and provide.
In what area of your life is God calling you to obedience this morning? Will you say yes?
Live on purpose,
Ron Klopfenstein
