Decisions

Decision making can be regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action.

Decision making can also be regarded as the thought process of selecting a logical choice from the available options. When trying to make a good decision, a person must weigh the positive and the negative aspects of each option, and consider the entire alternative. For effective decision making, a person must be able to forecast the outcome of each option as well. And based on all these items, determine which option is the best for that particular situation.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (The Message, MSG):

I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live.

And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Here Jesus is telling us that we have a choice to make, and whichever decision we make will give us life or death. And then he urges us to choose life.

The definition of urge here is to try earnestly to persuade someone to do something.

Here in the margin of The Message translation of the Bible, Deuteronomy 30:15, the word has an urgency which means "importance, requiring swift action." The Bible says, here is what will happen. While you're out among the nations where God has dispersed you, and the blessings and curses come in just the way I have set them before you, and you and your children take them seriously and come back to God, your God, and obey him with your whole heart and soul according to everything that I command you today, then God, your God, will restore everything you lost. He'll have compassion for you. He'll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. No matter how far away you end up, God will get you out of there and bring you back to the land your ancestors once possessed. It will be yours again. He will give you a good life, and make you more numerous than your ancestors.

Deuteronomy 30:6-7 says "God, your God, will cut away the calluses on your heart and your children's hearts, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live. God, your God, will put all these curses on your enemies who hated you and were out to get you."

Deuteronomy 30:8-9 continues, "And you will make a new start, listening obediently to God, keeping all his commandments that I'm commanding you today. God, your God, will outdo himself in making things go well for you: you'll have babies, gets calves, grow crops, and enjoy an all-around good life. Yes, God will start enjoying you again, making things go well for you just as he enjoyed doing it for your ancestors."

In Deuteronomy 30:15 Moses says, "Look at what I've done for you today: I've place in front of you Life and Good, Death and Evil."

For a brief history on Moses, we can look at Hebrews 11:23-28. When Moses was born, he was hidden by his parents, because they were afraid of the new king of Egypt's commandment of death to the infants of the Israelites. He was later rescued by Pharaoh's daughter. But as he grew older, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose instead to suffer affliction with the people of God, his people, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

As we know, Moses had to make a decision. He was not concerned about the consequences of his decision of choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoying pleasure for a season. Moses knew that sometimes you have to lose to win in the end. There are times when I knew that some decisions I made were going to have painful consequences, but I had to step out in faith and just trust God. You might ask if it was hard waiting on the results and the answer is yes. You see, great victory comes with great sacrifice.

Emotional Decisions

Emotional decisions are made when people are under pressure, so often a person's reasoning are camouflaged, and it hinders them from thinking logically. And ultimately, they make the wrong decision.

Some time ago, a client of mine made an emotional decision. Her husband was out of work, and as far as I know, most of the places he applied for work told him he was overqualified. After counseling her, it was noted that she was having a battle in her mind; something was telling her to divorce her husband. I told her she was making a bad emotional decision. Her fear was that she needed to live a certain life style, a lifestyle of looking good on the outside, but having a war on the inside. She had a life of keeping up with the Jones' so to speak.

A couple of weeks passed by, she came into my office and asked me if I noticed anything different. I looked at her carefully, and making sure I didn't say the wrong thing, I gave her a compliment on her dress, which was very colorful. But then she put her hand in front of me. I still was not sure what she was implying. To keep me out of suspense, she said, "My wedding ring is gone." I apologized for not having the same excitement she had. I told her all the reasons why she should rethink her decision, but to no avail. Her mind was made up.

I pointed out the fact that her husband was a well-respected man and well educated. She admitted he had always treated her well and took care of her.

I gave her some Bible Scriptures to read. One Scripture is found in the Book of Proverbs 14, which essentially says that a wise woman builds her home, but a fool will tear it down. It was clear that she was dancing to the rhythm no one is going to tell me what to do.

I tell husbands and wives that if there is a problem that arrives in their marriage, they should never go to bed angry with one another. Do whatever it take to make up.

Decisions that are made when a person is emotional can be very crucial. These decisions can hurt the person making them, and can hurt the people who are involved. I find that often when decisions are arrived in times such as these, there has been a lack of communication. And where there is no communication in a family there is confusion, and no time spent with God. Scripture says that he who keeps his mind on the Lord, he will keep them in perfect peace. As Christians, we must set the example when it comes to having control over our emotions. It is the expectation of the ones we are leading. The world expects us to be like Jesus, no matter what happens. The world is looking and waiting to say I told you so.

As believers in Christ, we have been adopted into a royal priesthood, holy and acceptable unto God. We are bought with a price. We are not our own. Therefore, we must...