planning – Matthew's Musings

Decision Making for Christians

Before we make decisions, it’s a good idea to ask some questions. These questions help us to make better choices and live with fewer regrets.

We might ask…

Will this work?
What will people think?
How much will it cost me? Do I have time for it?
Can I get away with it?
Am I capable of doing this?
Will it make me happy?

Questions like these are pretty useful tools when we make those choices. These are the sorts of questions that many really smart people rely on. I’d like to suggest that Christians should add another set of questions to their lists:

How does God feel about this?
Will it bring glory to God’s name or is this more about me?
Am I helping others or am I just advancing my personal agenda?
Is this truly wise?
What eternal difference will this decision make?
How will it affect my walk with God?
Will this decision make it easier or harder for me to follow Jesus?
Will this decision make it easier or harder for my family and friends to follow Jesus?
Would Jesus make this decision?
Is this the best use of the resources I’ve been entrusted with?
How will this decision affect eternity?

It’s good for us to think strategically and long-term. It’s better for us to think with God’s perspectives.

What questions would you add to the list?

WHO is in the details?

I don’t want to be legalistic here, but one thing I noticed from yesterday and the day before’s readings: God has a lot of specifics listed in his instructions for Jewish worship. He has listed who is supposed to clean up the sacrifices, organize the people, blow the trumpets….down to every last detail.

Side note: though these passages are very specific, they’re not really that complex. We often fall into a trap of thinking that the Old Law was so complicated and thus, difficult. The Old Law certainly was difficult — but that wasn’t due to its complexity. That was becasue attaining perfect righteousness through lawkeeping is inherently difficult in light of human nature! People throw around this stat a lot: there were 613 commandments in the Old Law! That’s so tough!

Have you read your drivers’ handbook? I started counting once, and as I could identify them in one chapter….just two or three pages in I’d already identified close to one hundred rules, yet I drive my car every day without worrying about whether or not I can remember each one. In fact, most days I knowingly break at least one! (Cough speed limit cough!) My point is — it’s not the complexity that made the law difficult; it was its nature.

Another example: God gave specifics about how his incense was to be made. If I counted right, there were four ingredients in two different quantities. If you’ve ever made chocolate chip cookies from scratch — you know that there are way more than 4 ingredients, and way more than two measuring spoons/cups dirty at the end of the process!

So let’s stop focusing on the complexity of the old law.

Why would God be so specific, though? Does he really just prefer a certain combination of spices? Does he think his fire and lightning look best against a certain gold backdrop?

Those are silly answers, of course. I think maybe he’s trying to teach a lesson about the value of worship. There’s something to be said for spontaneous outbursts of prayer and thanksgiving, but we shouldn’t neglect the beauty of spending time planning and thinking about how best to say ‘thank you.’ After all, don’t we say it’s the “thought that counts”?

It would behoove us to occasionally spend some time in preparation and planning for worship. Perhaps that could make an end of our age-old gripe, “I’m not getting enough out of it…”