PSALM 130:5-6 – I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

THEME OF THE DAY. AVOID IMPULSIVE AND EMOTIONAL DECISIONS. I have watched it happen too often. I have seen the devastating results when this occurs. I have sat and listened to the cries of regrets and sorrow from those broken hearts who allowed this. It is not restricted in its damage. Marriages, friendships, occupations, relationships with other believers, relationships in families, and the fracture of unity in a church all are causalities when we allow this to occur. And the saddest part is we are warned not to do this. We are given much Biblical counsel to avoid this. Yet, we do . . . we easily make impulsive and emotional decisions, especially spiritual ones, and when that occurs, nothing ever good results. King Solomon describes the person who does this in not-too-flattering language – Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered (Proverbs 28:26). The word “fool” means “a stupid fellow lacking good judgment.” Ouch! Yet, that would be us if we fail to practice today’s scripture when making decisions. So from this text, let’s draw two applications to help us avoid making impulsive and emotional decisions.

First, realize that God often puts His children in His school of waiting and rarely gives us an “instant” answer when it comes to direction – I wait for the Lord, my soul waits. Why? Two reasons; develop patience in us and dependency upon Him. This is not easy and especially in the “heat” of emotionally charged relationships. Too many marriages go south quickly by listening to the unreliable voices of emotions. Too many friendships are severed by raw emotions blurting out words of hurt only to be regretted later. Too many spiritual relationships end by people hastily departing churches over emotions causing sadness and hurt because we did not wait for the Lord and His will revealed in His Word. And sadly, most fractured spiritual relationships and departures from churches are not over compromise of cardinal doctrines of the faith, but by preferences not followed or tense relationships with other sheep. Don’t be quick in these relational decisions. Hasty decisions will come back to be haunting decisions in the near future.

Next, let the Word of God not only guide our decisions, but override our emotions seeking to make our decisions – in his word I hope. Here is where the battle is won or lost. The Apostle Paul instructs us to “Let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly” (Colossians 3:16a). In order to achieve this mark of spiritual maturity and spiritual ability to make wise and Godly decisions, we must be regularly putting the Word of God in us. If not, the default positions for making decisions are sinful human understanding and sinful emotions. When faced with a decision, go to the Word of God, and not just an isolated text we make “fit” into our emotions. Let it speak objective truth into our emotions and be the determining factor in our decision. And here is a piece of good advice when discerning a decision. Emotional decisions focus on ourselves and what we want, whereas spiritual decisions are taking from the Word of God and never focus on ourselves, but the interests of Christ and others. Spiritual and Word-based decisions practice the principal Jesus taught of “denying oneself” and always must be the guiding principle in any decision we make. So, be careful in making decisions. Wait on the Lord and don’t let emotions rule. We will not have to regret those decisions later.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me for the times I don’t wait upon You and make decisions I think are spiritual but are not.”

QUOTE: “Don’t allow human reasoning and your deceiving feelings be the compasses used to make spiritual decisions.”