A Good Idea or God’s Idea

To ensure that your choice is not merely a good idea, but God’s idea, run it through the five-fold filter of prayer, the Word, the alignment of circumstance, the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit, and the witness of the church. Learn to do that in matters great and small and you will not only avoid the sin of presumption, you will develop the all-important life-skill of wise decision making.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 27:1

But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing I can do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me in Israelite territory, and I will finally be safe.”

Notice that the text says, “David kept thinking to himself” rather than “God spoke to David.” Now to be certain, the writer offers no overt judgment against David’s actions in this story. He simply explains what David did; he neither denounces nor defends it. But it seems certain that David is trying to help God out a little by making this decision to live among Israel’s arch-enemy, the Philistines.

Of course, David is getting one over on the Philistines. While he tells the Philistine king that he is raiding the Israelites—misleading the king into believing that David is burning all his bridges with Israel—he is actually raiding villages subject to the king. And the king never finds out because David and his men lay waste to those villages and kill all the witnesses. Such is the brutality of the ancient world.

Since he is inflicting great damage surreptitiously on Israel’s enemies, it would be easy to justify David’s actions. But again, we find no indication that this is what the Lord led David to do. And herein lies the danger of faith versus presumption. Faith is to hear from God and act in obedience; presumption is to act upon the assumption of God’s blessing without directly hearing from him. David had become weary of being relentlessly hunted by King Saul’s forces. He was living as a fugitive, hiding in caves, separated from all that he knew. Perhaps his decision to live among the Philistines was influenced by depression, or anger, or fear. That would be understandable. And for all of the above reasons, it seemed like a good idea.

But was it God’s idea?

In matters great and small, the possibility always exists that the decision is either a good idea or God’s idea. If it is God’s idea, it is a good idea. But if it is a good idea without it being God’s idea, and we jump on the opportunity, we have fallen into the sin of presumption. The sin of presumption is to believe that something is true without having any proof, in this case, to presume that God has spoken or sanctioned a thing when he has not.

That was the sin of King Saul (1 Samuel 13:7-14)—and he did that with increasingly frequency as he drifted from full devotion to God.

Now as it relates to you and me, it is very unlikely that we will hear a direct and audible voice from God in the decisions of our lives. Obviously, God gave us a rational brain and the ability to think logically, and he expects us to partner with him in making good and godly choices. The question then, is how do we make God-pleasing decisions; how do we resist the pull of a good idea in favor of obedience to God’s idea? Here is a path:

1. Inquire of the Lord. Simple as that: ask God what he thinks. Pray—and make sure you are not just throwing up the Hail Mary prayers when you are in a jam and need a quick answer. Pray consistently and your decision-making acuity will increase exponentially.
2. Align your prayers with God’s Word. God does speak today, but it is just that he does so mostly through the Bible. As you are consistently in the Word, you will be amazed how much it keeps your praying tethered to God’s Will.
3. Watch circumstances. Is it obvious that the Lord is aligning events to be favorable to the decision you are facing? Look for where God is working and join him there.
4. Listen to the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit. After all, Jesus did promise us that the Counselor would be not only with us, but in us, to lead us in ways that please the Lord.
5. Involve the community of Christ. God has given you Christian friends and mentors in the Body of Christ, the church, to help you discern the Lord’s will. Ask them to pray with you and listen to their wise counsel.

These are five filters, if you will, that God has blessed and calls you to run all of your decisions through. All five are integrated; don’t just rely on one exclusively. Learn to process your choices, great and small, through these five filters until the process becomes second nature to you.

Do that—it’s a good idea that will lead you to embrace God’s idea in all matters.