Needing God's wisdom

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. Matthew 7: 24

I was struck today by the thought that without God it is so hard to make good life decisions. When we do not ask for the wisdom of God to guide us, it is so easy to make really poor choices. So often you hear of people who for apparently very good reasons moved house, country, job and then they are miserably unhappy and wish they had never moved.

Someone we know whose eye sight is failing decided recently to move into a home for partially sighted people. Their decision was made in consultation with both his wife who has moved with him and their son. For excellent reasons they decided to go but they are already deeply regretting the move and want to go back to where they were.

With God’s help we can make what Steve Backlund calls rock (not sand) decisions by which he means we make choices that will enable our lives to be built upon Christ our rock and not the sinking sands of our own ideas and plans.

Making good choices for the big decisions of life comes from two ways. Firstly we need to do things God’s way concerning the key areas of life. We will build on the rock when we purpose to live in honesty, maintain sexual purity, walk in generosity, serve others and put God first in our lives. This “rock living” will protect us from much heartache and will leave an inheritance of blessing for our descendants.

Secondly we need to learn to hear the voice of God for our day to day living. God wants to train us to do his will in the small decisions of life, being kind to those we meet, showing generosity, having time for people. As we learn to hear and respond to his voice in the smaller things of life, it is so much easier to hear him for the bigger decisions.

I am so thankful to have God to help my family and I make good decisions but the best news though is that even when we make ‘sand’ decisions which we may deeply regret, God can redeem and turn around even the most hopeless of circumstances.

A few years ago, another friend of ours moved house and job away from family and friends believing it was God’s will for their lives. It was not a good move and the expected promotion never materialised. The man’s wife was unhappy away from the family and the area they used to live. Some years later, the wife rather sadly said to me that they could never go back to which I replied, ‘Why not?’

That little conversation triggered a chain of events which led to them returning to the former area and their family. When we saw them last they were so much happier and as Addison Bevere says, ‘God is an expert at redeeming time. He can take years of waste and turn them into a springboard for purpose and promise.’