“God wants us to be excellent choosers.”

A thought by John Ortberg, (2015-02-24) from his book. All the Places to Go . . . HowWill You Know?: God Has Placed before You an Open Door. What Will You Do? (p. 108). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

But we don’t like to make choices because we are afraid to be wrong. And that is one of the reasons why we are constantly praying for God’s will in different choices that we are called to make. It also is very difficult. It really is.

But John says, “God wants us to learn to choose well. That may be why, when we look at the Bible, there is no chapter devoted to ‘How to know God’s will for your life.’ Often when we are faced with a real-life choice, the Bible seems no more helpful than Yogi Berra’s old dictum: ‘When you come to a fork in the road, take it.’ Paul doesn’t write about ‘six steps to determine if he’s the one’ or ‘five ways to discern God’s job for you.’ What we do see are statements like this: ‘If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you’ (James 1: 5, NRSV). Or ‘This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best’ (Philippians 1: 9-10).”

Two other thoughts he gives on this are, “If I’m facing a choice and I want to find God’s will for my life, I don’t begin by asking which choice is God’s will for my life. I need to begin by asking for wisdom.”

And then, “The biggest difference between people who flourish in life and those who don’t is not money, health, talent, connections, or looks. It’s wisdom — the ability to make good decisions.”

I think Proverbs in the Old Testament would be a good place to start. Solomon asked God for wisdom and he is the writer of this book. Or James in the New Testament is a good book to read. Read these and pray that God will give you wisdom.

So what choices are you facing today?

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