Making Wise Decisions
The Beginning, Fullness & End of Wisdom
You and I make dozens of decisions every day. Some decisions can drastically change the rest of our lives: What career to pursue? Who to marry? How to invest? Most of us understand that good decision-making goes beyond morality. It calls for wisdom. Though a morally corrupt choice is never wise, a morally good choice can be unwise. Further, a fool can make an objectively good decision (such as deciding to be sober) but remain a fool. A wise person can make a decision that looks foolish (such as leaving a well-paying job to become an evangelist) but is not.
Wisdom is not a formula. What is wise in a given circumstance may not be in another. Wisdom springs from the heart. It starts with a transformed inner Person. Remember Solomon? When he prayed for wisdom, he asked God for a wise heart (a), not for more rules. Tim Keller put it this way: “Wisdom is not less than being moral and good; it is much more” (b). So what exactly is wisdom? How to make wise decisions?
It’s Not ‘What’ but ‘Who’
First, let me ask you a question: why do you want to make good decisions? You probably want to maximize your likelihood of happiness and fulfillment. This is not wrong. It is a God-given desire. The problem is that we often use the wrong metrics to evaluate what such a life looks like. Jesus says that on this side of heaven, it will most likely look like a life of loss, sacrifice, suffering and derailed plans for his name’s sake but filled with true joy because of the hope we have in him (c). Wisdom from above is more concerned with eternal outcomes than current comfort. Jesus taught that it is wise to use everything we have right now to invest in that which lasts forever. This life is just one second in eternity. Do the math. Moreover, as creatures, we can only be fulfilled in our inner beings when we live according to our purpose. And what is our ultimate purpose? Glorifying God. It is the reason why we were created (d). Therefore, it must be the end-goal of any decision we make.
Wisdom can be defined as the ability to evaluate options and choose what Glorifies God and matters most for eternity, based on our Knowledge and experience of God. Prov. 9:10 tells us that ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight’. Glorifying God begins with knowing God, who has fully revealed himself through Jesus Christ. In Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (e). Jesus is Wisdom. He is the beginning, fullness, and end of Wisdom.
Knowing God: Our Father in Heaven
By faith in Jesus, we become God’s Children and partakers of the divine nature. Our hearts are changed and our minds conformed to the mind of Christ (f). We have fellowship with the Triune God. This is significant. It tells us that knowing God is deeply intimate and relational. We cannot know God as strangers or even as close acquaintances. Only through Christ, can we truly know and fear God. In Him, we see with clearer eyes the realities of the world we live in. We understand things that can only be spiritually discerned. We learn the wise economy of the Kingdom of God — that death to self is life, serving is leading, loss is gain and kindness is strength. The cross is the ultimate display of God’s wisdom.
Practically, How To Make Wise Decisions?
Wisdom is not a formula, so I cannot give you one. But here are a few things that have helped me a lot:
Many options: when I pray for wisdom, I tend to think that God will drop the ‘right’ answer in my heart one day. Sure, that can and has happened. But more often, God gives us many options that will each equally bring Him Glory. We have the freedom to choose.
Community: It is crucial to ask for advice and counsel from wise and godly Christians. It is amazing the things that we can be blind to.
Pray: last but of first importance, continually pray through the decision-making process. Jesus will lead you.
NOTES & SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
All scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV), unless otherwise noted.
(a) 1 Kings 3:9 (Solomon’s request to the Lord): Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind [understanding heart in other translations] to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
(b) October 31, 2004. Series "Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living"
(c) John 16:33: I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
(d) Col. 1:16: For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. Isaiah 43: 7: Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
(e) Col. 9:10: For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. Col 2:3: …Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 1 Cor. 1:30-31: And because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
(f) John 1:12-13: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 2 Peter 1:3-4: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 1 Cor. 2:13-16: Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God...The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ...But we have the mind of Christ.
