Good Decisions…A Godly Process
Week 4
‘ME’ Decisions -
“Success sabotages the memories of the successful. Kings of the mountain forget who carried them up the trail.” Max Lucado
What do you think Mr. Lucado meant by that?
Maybe for you it’s different but for me I have discovered that many times, even after an answer to prayer, I forget just how I overcame sticky circumstances or I don’t acknowledge that I receive a definite answer to a request I made of God… I seem to get amnesia.
However, Mr. Lucado shares an example of one who never seemed to have amnesia, even with fame and fortune. His name is David Robinson, a seven foot tall basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs. For 14 years he dominated the league: MVP, All-star, two championship rings, two Olympic gold medals…he was good. These words appeared in the Washington Times the day after Robinson’s departing victory.
‘Robinson showed that a player did not have to be cheap or dirty to be effective. He did not have to clutter his body with tattoos or litter the NBA cities with illegitimate children. Robinson never felt a need to bring attention to himself, to shimmy after a good play or point to the crowd, as if to say, “Look at me. Aren’t I something special?” The good guys won. Robinson won. Decency won. We all won.’ Minutes after hoisting the trophy overhead, David was interviewed by a national network. “People in San Antonio know what I’m going to say,” And we did…we did because we had heard him say it and seen him live it for so long. “All the glory goes to God,” he announced.*
David Robinson knew that neither his height nor his talent were his because of anything he had done. It was God…all God. That sets a wonderful example for the rest of us. I wish I could say that I take nothing for granted but I cannot. I can say however that I recognize often that I have what I do because it is permitted by God to have it.
Unlike Mr. Robinson, I am short in stature. Unlike Mr. Robinson, other than a very small circle, the world does not know that I exist. I am not famous or wealthy but one way that Mr. Robinson and I are alike is that I know what I have belongs to God and any good attributes that may be seen in me also comes from Him. Even my power to deduce right from wrong, my objectivity and opportunity to decide for myself comes from the gift of choice.
We are given the inspired word of God to remind us not to take our lives for granted.
Deuteronomy 8:11 “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees… vs. 12, 13, 14 – Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God…”
What is this verse saying to you?
After all, what had God done for them? Vs. 15 – He led them and brought them. Vs. 16 – He gave them… He was totally responsible for his people, not unlike today. But the warning continues… vs. 17 – You may say to yourself, ‘my power and strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” (giving no credit to God) Vs. 18 – BUT remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…
So how are we to live each day? How do we make decisions based on ‘remembering’ God and including him?
Life decisions from the Bible:
First we can look at Adam and Eve and the decisions they made. I wonder if Eve ever said about Cain…’where did I go wrong?’ I mention that because both of Cain’s parents didn’t exactly set an example of loyalty or obedience. Though the children hadn’t been born yet at the time of their parent’s blatant disobedience, most likely through children’s curiosity, they may have wondered about the ‘why’s and ‘how comes’. Picture it. Abel and his brother are helping their dad and Cain says, ‘Father, why do we have to grow for harvest and why does Able have to tend the livestock. Can’t they take care of themselves? …or “Father, you have me weed the garden from morning till night and still the thorns and thistles take over…why?” (Gen. 3:17, 18) I wonder how Adam would have answered his son. Would he tell them that it was God’s curse because of his disobedience?
And what about Cain anyway. Why did he kill his brother? Was it out of jealousy, envy or hate? Cain made a conscious though evil decision to take matters into his own hands and the outcome was death.
Though Sarah had the promise from God, she too, took things into her own hands. Was she impatient, unbelieving or just in a hurry? Her decisions cost her peace and joy even though God never broke his promise to her.
We know what Jonah’s decision was. He was bold thinking that he could out run God. God gave him a chance to change his mind…so Jonah’s decision changed and he obeyed. Listen, God did not have to use Jonah…He chose to, just as he often gives us a chance to straighten up and fly right. We decide to obey… or not.
Turning the tables and looking at good decisions.
Ruth – background
Due to a famine, Elimelech took his wife Naomi and two sons (Mahlon and Chilion to Moab). Eventually Elimelech died. Naomi’s two sons married women of Moab (non believers of the great I AM) One was Orpah and the other was Ruth. After ten years the sons both die. Naomi was now away from her people, her husband and both sons are gone. Word comes to her that the Lord had once again provided her people food. She and her two daughters-in-law head back to the land of Judah.
Naomi tells the girls (starting in vs. 8) “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Naomi kisses them and the girls weep and say to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
Stop here: The decision process here is one of practicality on Naomi’s part and emotion on the girl’s parts. It doesn’t end here however. I feel that the girls felt a great love for Naomi as well as security. Perhaps they even felt as if they needed to protect her and not leave her alone. We just don’t know but Naomi, thinking ahead tells them – vs. 11 “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me-even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons-would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It‘s more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me.” (NIV)
This really touches my heart because not once, but three times, Naomi calls them her daughters. I have 2 daughters-in-love. I believe that is how Naomi felt about Orpah and Ruth…daughters-in-love not daughters-in-law. She was protecting their future just as any mother would do… and maybe she was feeling as if there was going to be a tougher road yet to come. If you read that last portion, of verse 13, she is convinced that the Lord is against her in a personal way, however, she still takes into account the well being of Orpah and Ruth. Because she must have loved them a great deal, it must have been a very difficult decision to go on without them.
Now it is the girls turn to decide. The girls cry again, but Orpah sees that she must go back to her family. She kisses Naomi good-by and leaves. A tough but practical decision. What may have it been based on?
Ruth’s turn. Starting in Vs. 15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
Wow! To be loved like that!
Let’s look at Ruth’s decisions: Are they based on emotion, loyalty, love, practicality, God?
Where you go I will go:
Where you stay (live) I will stay:
Your people will be my people:
Your God will be my God:
Where you die, I will die:
I will be buried there:
Think of your last big decision…what were the reasons behind it? What was the outcome?
Your Challenge for this week is to read the book of Esther. There are times when we are not in control of the decisions made regarding our own lives. How do we handle that!?
* Max Lucado “It’s Not About Me” pgs. 135, 136
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