DECIDE BY YOUR HEART, NOT YOUR HEAD
A person who needs to have everything all figured out will not be courageous. People who do courageous things follow their hearts. They may not always fully understand why they feel courage, but they are bold enough to follow it. I am not suggesting we follow our emotions, which would not be good since they are rather unstable. But we should follow our born-again spirits, our hearts.
People who do bold things step out in faith even though they have no real proof they will even work. They make decisions by discernment. Discernment means to be able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure. It is the ability to see what is not obvious based on circumstances. A person might say he makes decisions by his “gut.” This simply means he does what he believes is right even if he feels uncomfortable. Jesus Himself did not make decisions based on natural knowledge.
And shall make Him of quick understanding, and His delight shall be in the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord. And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, neither decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness and justice shall He judge the poor and decide with fairness for the meek, the poor, and the downtrodden of the earth (Isaiah 11:3-4)
We see from this Scripture that He did not decide “by the sight of His eyes,” or the “hearing of His ears,” yet He was of “quick understanding.” If we follow our hearts, we can understand quickly what we could not learn by natural means in a lifetime. It is sad, but most people are afraid to operate in the supernatural realm; they want to understand everything in their minds.
One year a man was helping me do my income tax. When he observed that we gave 10 percent of our income to the church each year, he promptly told me that we were giving too much, that it was not necessary, and we should stop.
He was looking at our giving in the natural and could find no reason why we would want to do such a thing. We were looking at it according to our knowledge of God’s Word. We understood spiritually what we were doing and believed that if we gave, God would always take care of us. I tried to explain God’s principles on sowing and reaping to him, but he insisted that even if we wanted to give, it did not need to be that much, especially since we didn’t have an abundance left over after giving to the church and paying our bills.
This is an example of a natural man not understanding the spiritual man. First Corinthians 2:14 explains that the natural man cannot understand spiritual things because they must be spiritually discerned. This simply means that spiritual things take place in the born-again spirit of the inner man, not in the natural mind.
This is one of the reasons God’s Word instructs us to let peace be the umpire in our lives, deciding with finality everything that is questionable. If we could go two ways, which way do we go? What do we decide? We decide to do what we have peace in our hearts about, what we are comfortable with inside of us. God speaks and communicates to the heart of man, not necessarily to his head. We know God in our hearts. He dwells in our hearts.
This is the reason people who depend on their intellects have a difficult time believing in God. They don’t see Him, they don’t feel Him, and many of His principles don’t make sense to their natural minds.
Naturally speaking, what sense does it make to tell people that they will have increase if they give away some of their money? It makes no sense at all. The Bible says that the first will be last, and the last will be first. That makes no sense to my mind, but I know by spiritual understanding that it means when we try to push ourselves forward into first place, we will end up last. When we wait on God to promote us, even if we start out last, we will end up first.
I am very grateful for discernment and spiritual understanding. I appreciate the fact that you and I, as believers in Jesus Christ, filled with His Spirit, can make decisions courageously because we can trust what is in our hearts.
If you have been having difficulty making a decision, try this: Let your mind rest. Don’t be thinking about what you should do. Then see what is in your heart—what do you know inside that you should do? Whatever you have peace about, do that.
A person might want to purchase a new car but not have real peace about it. Emotional excitement is not peace. If you are confused, you are not in God’s will. He is the Author of peace, not confusion. Satan wants you confused. It is really very simple: If you don’t have peace, don’t buy the car. If you do purchase it without peace, I can guarantee that later on you will be sorry that you did. You will either have purchased something that will not meet your needs, it will require a lot of maintenance, or it will create financial pressure.
We don’t have to know why God is not giving us peace to do a certain thing; we just need to follow His leading. He is not obligated to explain, but we are obligated to trust Him.
THE DOUBLE-MINDED MAN IS UNSTABLE AND UNRELIABLE
In James 1, we find that when we need wisdom we should ask God for it, and He will give it—but we must ask in faith. We are not to waver, hesitate, or doubt. The person who does these things will receive nothing he asks for from the Lord. Why? If the man cannot settle on something and make a decision about what he believes, how can God give him anything? “[For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides]” (James 1:8).
The double-minded man is unreliable and unstable. This is not a reputation anyone wants to have. I want people and the Lord to be able to depend on me, to know that I mean what I say and won’t change my mind without a very good reason.
Paul told the Corinthians that when he said yes to them, it meant yes. He promised that yes would not end up being no (see 2 Corinthians 1:17-18). In other words, Paul was promising not to be double-minded. He was telling the church members that they could count on him to be stable, and he would keep his word to them.
Integrity is extremely important for every person, and especially for those who lead others. How could Paul expect to be respected if he was unreliable? He couldn’t, and neither can we.
I want to be in relationship with people I can depend on, people I know who are decisive, stable, and reliable. I want to be able to trust people. Good relationships are built on trust. I was recently involved in an event that required people to sign up ahead of time, indicating whether or not they would be attending. We had nine hundred people say they were coming, and only seven hundred showed up. Very few of them made any effort to cancel or even communicate that they were not coming. The problem was twofold: First, they did not keep their word, and second, we had purchased and cooked meat for nine hundred, and since seven hundred showed up, we obviously had lots of meat left over.
This was inconsiderate on their parts and harmful to them spiritually because they didn’t honor their commitment. This is a widespread problem today in our society. Most people don’t think anything at all about saying they will do a thing and then changing their minds without any good reason, except they did not feel like doing what they said they would do. Their excuse is “I changed my mind.”
The very least we can do when we have made a commitment and cannot or will not keep it is to make a phone call and say so. Don’t just leave people hanging, not having any idea what happened.
Those who didn’t attend the event I mentioned thought it didn’t really matter. But it always makes a difference if we don’t do what we say we will.
Our word is a verbal contract. This verse shows that God considers it to be a vow: “When you vow a vow or make a pledge to God, do not put off paying it; for God has no pleasure in fools (those who witlessly mock Him). Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5).
We should take these Scriptures to heart and view them seriously. Don’t make commitments rashly without giving thought to whether or not you are prepared to follow through. I am sure that some of the two hundred people who failed to show up had good reasons for not doing so, but I am equally sure
that most of them just plain didn’t see the need to keep their word.
When we keep our word, even if it is inconvenient for us to do so, it shows good character. We should be concerned about our example because the world is watching those of us who claim to be Christians. They want to see if we are all talk, or if we are living what we are saying we believe.
I have witnessed people signing up for things and not showing up numerous times during my years of involvement with people in the church. I started out being shocked because I assumed church people could be trusted, but I quickly learned that just because someone goes to church, he is not automatically honest and truthful.
The ones who don’t keep their word always have an excuse of some kind, but I don’t believe they have peace. We cannot be double minded, unreliable, and unstable and enjoy peace at the same time. We may try to override the feelings of conviction about not keeping our commitment, but its presence nibbles away at the peace God wants us to enjoy.
One of the ways to maintain peace with God, with yourself, and your fellow man is to do what you say you will do. Once you have made up your mind, don’t change it unless you have no other choice.
DON’T BE DOUBLE-MINDED, EVEN IN SMALL MATTERS
Although I am usually very decisive, I have been known to be double-minded about little things, like what to wear or where to go and eat. God showed me that even being double-minded in these things places pressure on me and robs me of available peace. I like my meals, for example, to be perfect. I think of one restaurant that has the salad I like, but then another comes to mind that has wonderful coffee. Then I remember the pasta dish I love at another one, and before I realize what I am doing, I have spent a half hour or more going back and forth in my mind and in conversation with others about where I want to eat.
It’s so bad that it has become a family joke. My son says to me early in the morning, “You better start thinking now about where you want to go eat, so you have a decision by tonight when it is time to go.” Or when I tell him to make a reservation at a restaurant for all of us, he might say, “I will check with you in two hours and see if the decision is still the same, so I won’t have to change the reservation three times between now and then.”
I am doing better, but I still find myself falling into the trap of being double-minded in this area simply because I want to get a perfect meal—and there is probably no such thing.
I have a large classic-movie collection and I often get double-minded about which movie I want to watch. I may choose three or four and keep going back and forth. I read the back of the box and ask others in the family what they think. I make a decision, but then I might ask people who have seen the movies which one is the best and change my mind again. Sometimes I get so frustrated that I end up watching nothing. I turn the television on and flip from channel to channel for an hour and then go to bed. This is a ridiculous waste of time, and it is another habit I am in the process of breaking. As you can see, I am not perfect in this area either, so if you need to change too, we can change together.
My main point is that even being double-minded in small things, which would not seem to matter very much, can still steal your peace, and it is simply not worth it.
The only way to find out if I will enjoy a movie that I have not seen is to start viewing it. If it does not suit me, I can try another one, but at least I need to do something besides be double-minded.
According to Scripture, it is the little foxes that spoil the vine. In other words, it is not always big things that cause misery; often it is small, almost imperceptible things—things we would not think matter at all.
Some people who lack peace search in all the wrong places for the sources of their problem, but it may simply result from being indecisive, even in the small matters of everyday life. To overcome this, they must practice being decision makers in less-consequential situations, and it will help them gain confidence for larger issues.
CHOOSE WHOM YOU WILL SERVE
Joshua was obviously a man who had his mind made up about what he was going to do, and it didn’t matter to him what others did. He said, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). We should not wait to see what other people will do before making our own decisions, especially when it comes to serving God.
James talked about believers who cannot make their minds up whether they want Jesus or the world when he wrote: “Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery]” (4:8). James referred to people with divided interests as “spiritual adulter[ers]”: They choose the world as a friend, therefore making God their enemy.
We cannot serve God and the world. We are in the world, but the Bible instructs not to be like it. We can live in it, but we cannot love it. God must have first place at all times.
Keeping the Lord first requires consistent decisions and a refusal to be double-minded. Just about the time we make a decision to do the right thing, someone will come along and try to convince us to compromise. We have to stand firm on what we believe is right for us.
James referred to those who cannot decide whether they want God or the world as “sinners” and told them to purify their hearts of being double-minded. Satan tried to tempt Jesus with the world and all it had to offer, but Jesus quickly responded by quoting Scriptures to him. Jesus knew what He wanted, He knew what was really important, and He stood firm on His original decision to do what God had sent Him to do (see Luke 4).
Temptation will come. It is a defining moment in our lives each time we face temptation yet remain firm on what we know is right. The devil’s ultimate plan is to destroy us. He may make sin look inviting in the beginning, but in the end, we will be sorry if we fall into his trap.
I repeat, don’t be double-minded. Make up your mind to serve the Lord, and don’t bow down to the devil or anyone through whom he is trying to work. Be like Joshua: Have a firm attitude toward others who try to move you off of your righteous stand. No one else will stand before God and give an account of your life, only you will (see Romans 14:12), so make your own decisions.
Every decision is a seed you sow, and every seed produces a harvest. Before changing your mind and giving in to temptation, ask yourself if you want to reap the harvest of the seed you are being tempted to sow.
The Bible is literally filled with promises of good things to those who follow God’s commands. Decide to follow Jesus, and don’t ever change your mind.
In Luke 10, we see that Jesus visited two sisters named Mary and Martha. These women had quite different natures. One was very interested in seeking Jesus; the other was interested in impressing Him.
Martha was busy about much serving. She wanted everything to be clean and in the right place. She became angry with her sister, Mary, because she was sitting at the feet of Jesus, wanting to learn all she could and enjoy Him while He was present.
Martha even complained to Jesus and told Him to tell Mary to get up and help her. Jesus replied by saying, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; there is need of only one [thing]. . . . Mary has chosen the good portion [that which is to her advantage]” (Luke 10:41-42).
Mary made a firm choice, and even when Martha became angry with her, she did not change her mind. We must realize that people will often get angry with us if we don’t make the choices they want us to make, but we should remain steadfast and follow our own hearts.
Learn to relax and be more like Mary. Martha believed that she had to take care of everything herself. She wanted everything to be perfect. Sometimes we can find ourselves like Martha, tense even when we don’t have anything to be tense a
bout. It isn’t really our circumstances that make us tense; most of the time it is our own approach to life. In the next chapter we will examine ways to relax and enjoy trusting God’s faithfulness to take care of us.
PEACEKEEPER #6
Stay Supernaturally Relaxed
The longer we know the Lord, the more relaxed we should become when we face situations that try to steal our peace. Previous experience with God is valuable because we learn that somehow He always comes through. Each time we face a new crisis, we can remember that even though He may not have done exactly what we wanted Him to do, He always did something that worked out. Relaxing in the face of trials helps us to maintain our peace with God.
New believers who do not have personal examples on which to build their confidence in God must be more dependent on examples in the Bible of God’s faithfulness. The testimonies of other believers can also greatly encourage them.
Remember, Jesus said that we are to come to Him when we have problems, and He will give us rest. The Amplified Bible translates His words as: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]” (Matthew 11:28).
That sounds to me like Jesus wants us to live in a relaxed state, not tense, uptight, worried, or anxious about yesterday, today, or tomorrow. We can stop reasoning and trying to figure out what we need to do. And the Lord doesn’t want us to be upset with other people who aren’t doing what we want them to, either.