Tools for Monday: How to Discern What is the Good or Right Thing to Do (Part 3)
Welcome to 2024! We continue today with the Monday blog series about our discernment concerning God’s will. So far, we have mentioned that decision-making can be quite confusing, but God does not will us to be completely in the dark about how to live. We have also discussed three of the more culturally popular, but non-biblical ways for making decision.
Let’s now get into the nitty-gritty of Christian decision-making, starting with the fact that Christianity is much different from the popular methods we’ve discussed so far. The main difference is that Christianity begins with God as the ultimate reference point, not us. Healthy decision-making begins and ends with God. Think of it like this: Just as the earth revolves around the sun, so are we to revolve around God. If we start with orbiting around God, then our behavior is going to flow from our relationship to Him.
There’s a fancy sounding theological axiom at work here: The indicative comes before the imperative. That means we don’t start with a command (imperative) and try to make decisions primarily based on a rule, law, or principle. We start with our relationship to God through Christ (the indicative) which will leads us to do what God says and commands.
Here’s a practical way of doing this. When you are contemplating the good or right thing to do in any given situation, don’t start with questions like, “What should I do?” or “How do I become a better person?” These are good questions but not the primary ones. Start by asking yourself, “What is God doing here?” When we put our mind on the Lord, seeking Him and his kingdom first, then the questions about what we should do will come into better perspective.
After we have prayed about what God is doing around us and how we may respond to God’s work, then we can use three immensely helpful tools: Goals, Duties, and Virtues. These three tools work in tandem and provide tremendous clarity to our decisions, even in complex situations.
Next Monday, we will talk about these three tools and how they shed light on our daily problems.