Yet what does Paul point him to? He points Timothy back to the Scriptures, for they are the word of the Lord. If anyone needed help and guidance in making decisions, it was Timothy at this time. Anyone who has ever been in the position of a leader can tell you that it isn’t easy!īeing a leader means making a lot of tough decisions on behalf of an entire group of people. In 2 Timothy, Paul is writing to Timothy to encourage him as a leader and to build him up in Paul’s absence. Sometimes when we are looking for help in making decisions, we forget that God has already given us a perfect manual for how to live our lives. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV) If you want to learn more about praying and how to place your requests before God, you can read this article about prayer. When you are seeking wisdom for your decision-making, simply talk to the Lord and ask Him to give it to you with the right intentions and listen to what He says. Yet Jesus tells us, our Heavenly Father knows how to give good gifts to those who ask Him. We don’t ask Him to fulfill His will because we are scared of what may come out of it. Sometimes we doubt that God knows what is good for us. In Matthew 7:11, Jesus says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (NIV) If you are looking for wisdom in order to make good decisions that honor the Lord in all that you do, ask Him for it and be honest with Him about it. Or, as James covers in chapter 4 of his book, we ask with the wrong intentions and the wrong purpose in mind. Sometimes wisdom isn’t revealed to us because we don’t ask for it. After all, did Solomon not simply ask God for wisdom and it was given to him in great measure? He tells us to just ask God for wisdom and we will receive it. If we are seeking wisdom in our decision-making, James makes it quite simple for us. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” – James 1:5 (NIV) He will make our decision-making blessed when we trust in Him rather than in ourselves. Rather, we must lean on the Lord’s understanding instead of our own in all things and He will make our paths straight. We cannot trust our own hearts and the decisions which come out of them. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. They thought that they knew best and it always led them down the wrong paths to judgement. This would have been groundbreaking for the Israelites in the time of Solomon considering the fact that the very thing that Israel always struggled with was trusting in their own hearts and motives over God’s. Yet what Solomon is telling us here in Proverbs is to rather trust in the LORD with all of our hearts and to not trust in our own understanding. We let our heart’s desires lead us down paths that result in sin and destruction. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)įar too often, we trust in our own hearts.
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