Make a Decision Already

          Are you able to make decisions quickly? It is difficult for me to make decisions. The more options there are, the more difficult it is for me to nail down and commit to a decision.

Some examples:

Choosing a paint color --- 

            I am plagued by a few bad paint color choices, one being the Happy Face yellow I painted our bathroom at work. It really wakes us up when we get there in the morning. I painted over the weekend, and surprised everyone at work Monday morning. Then there was the painter’s tape blue. Do you know the dark blue painter’s tape used to cover baseboards, outlets and windowsills? Yes, I painted three of the four walls in my bedroom while my husband was out of town.                                                         BLUE. BOLD DARK BLUE.

Color of my bedroom walls.

            I am afraid to make another bad paint color mistake. I am afraid I won’t like the color, because it looks different on the wall than it does on a tiny square at the store.  I’m afraid even if I talk myself into liking the finished product, other people won’t like it. Kind of like when you get a haircut and people say,

“Oh, you got your haircut.”  Instead of “Looks good!” 

            Similarly, on that Monday morning of the surprise bright yellow bathroom at work, people said,

“So, you painted over the weekend, huh?”  Not “Nice job. Looks great!”

            Other examples of my indecision: choosing food at a restaurant, picking a parking spot, choosing a hair style, picking out clothes or shoes, choosing a bathing suit (Don’t even get me started on how hard that is!) I could go on and on.

            That is why I love reading about that prophet of old, Elijah, giving the people a choice as to which God they would serve. I picture him shouting from the mountaintop so everyone could hear, just before the Lord performs a huge miracle. Elijah shouts,

 “How long are you going to waver between two opinions?                                                

 If Baal is God, choose him. If the Lord is God, choose Him.” 

            The people are silent. What? They stay undecided, because they were satisfied with worshipping Baal sometimes, and worshipping the Lord sometimes, and doing whatever they wanted.

            But then, when the one true God rains down fire from heaven and consumes Elijah’s sacrifice and the entire alter, the people are jolted into deciding. They bow down low and exclaim together,

“The Lord He is God! The Lord He is God!”

            Making a decision for God is one of the ways we grow closer to Him. First, we have to make the big decision to follow Him and commit our life to Him. Then, we have to make hundreds of little decisions to either choose His way or our way. It is easier to choose His way in the small decisions, if we have already made the big decision to commit our life to Him.  But, there are plenty of daily decisions to be made: This movie or that one? This website? That book? This magazine? These friends or those friends?

            Making the decision that The Lord He is God, and then choosing His way on our daily decisions will help us grow closer to Him.

What daily decision have you made to choose God’s way today?