Directions While doing my devotions I was reading my bible with the theme direction in mind.

Asking myself what direction does God want me to go in my life. What am I doing? What have I been doing and where am I going? I think in order to have a clear direction and follow Gods will for your life there are three key ingredients or steps to having a clear direction. Each component or ingredient can be broken down further into sub components/ingredients but here are the three.

1. Wisdom (Seeking Gods wisdom of what his will is for your life) 2. Decision (After seeking gods will and receiving an answer you need make a decision. Am I going to do it or not? Obedience. 3. Faithfulness (The ability to follow thru for the longevity of the decision even if you feel like in the worlds eyes its not the right decision). This devotion can really be broken up into three separate messages so for today I am going to solely concentrate on the Second component. The actual decision process and what examples there are in the bible of decision making and what the word of God says about the matter. If we turn our bibles to Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD , choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Proceeding these verses the bible tells us that Lord took Abraham and led him throughout all the land. That he sent Mosses and Aaron and plagued Egypt. And that when Gods people cried unto him as the Egyptians pursued them that the LORD put darkness between the Egyptions and Gods people and the sea consumed them. The book of Joshua then goes on to say that God gave them the land which they did not labour and the cities which they did not build and vinyards which they did not plant. Then in verse 14 of chapter 24 the bible says. Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the Gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD Then if we read verse 15 again, And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, whom ye will serve; So you can see here the people are asked to make a choice a decision. Joshua goes on to Cleary say which decision he has made. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Choose this day

Wouldnt it be interesting if every time we had to make a decision we thought of this verse. Is this decision a right one. Will I be serving the lord if I make the right decision? In Luke there are number of examples of being faced with a decisions to serve to the Lord or not to. Luke 9:57 And it came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whither soever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him. Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me, But he said, Lord suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thouh and preach the kindom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewll, which are home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. I think verse 62 gives us a real clear picture of what we should do once have made a decision. You see if verse 61 the man said Lord I will follow thee; he had made a decision to follow the lord But the man didnt have the faith required to follow thru with the decision that he had made. The man looking back after deciding to follow Christ wanted to go home and bid those Farwell that lived in his house. When I think of this verse it seems only natural as humans that we would want to travel home to say good bye to those we love. But as you can see we have a great responsibility once we decide to follow the lord to keep moving forward and continue with the faith that Christ has bestowed upon us. The apostle Paul in his writings to the Church at Corinth he goes on to deal with the motives for decision making and service. In 1St Corinithians 15:58 the bible says. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain the LORD. Now as we all know any verse with beginning with the word Therefore mean all this thinking of all these things I have told you before therefore now Im going to tell you this. So proceeding this verse Paul talked about the final victory over death and how as Christians our earthly death is swallowed up by in victory. What Victory? Its the victory of Jesus in our lives. So as you can see we are instructed what our motivation should be when we make decisions. We need to be steadfast, unmovable. As making good decisions in life with right motives will not be vain.

I think the book of James really sums up the decision making process the best. The book of James talks about the testings of faith. It goes on to deal with asking for wisdom in faith and then to be one minded and have a clear thought process. This is very important part of making decisions. Because if you are double minded or wavering in your thought process then you need to seek Gods wisdom until you are clear and one minded. James 1:1 says James a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, gretting. My breathren count it all joy when ye fall into divers tempatations; Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her prefect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing waverig. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. I think James deals with two important issues. The first if we lack wisdom that we should seek it. How are we to seek it? Thru both prayer and reading Gods word. Once we receive our answer do not be double minded be clear and decisive and continue in faith with the decision you have made. Thats not to say that we are to be stubborn about the decisions we make and can never change directions or Gods will for us can not change. We need to be receptive to the leading of the holy spirit and if we have made the wrong decision that we need to go back and seek wisdom and then move forward again with a clear direction. In conclusion to this devotion we know that every day of our Christian walk we have to make decisions. At times some decisions will be trivial, at other times decisions may seem small but when built upon they become major. The major point that I am trying to get across about the decision making process is 1. Seek wisdom in prayer and reading the bible before making decisions. 2. Be clear and of one mind once you have made the decision. Think about if the decision is serving the lord? Am I being truthfull, steadfast and unmovable in the decision I have made. 3. If I have made wrong decisions have I repented and gone back to seek gods wisdom.

4. Finally am I showing the faith to follow thru with the decision I have made. Do I really believe God is in this? If he is then it doesnt matter what the world thinks but go with it.