Decisions are essential but Be certain
“And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.” (1 Kings 18:21, ESV)
This is an old riddle that is solved by using logic. Say, you are walking through the woods on a path to a destination. You have to get to the destination, but there is a fork in the road. You see a sign on the road just before the fork that says, “Danger One Road Leads to Certain Destruction.” However, the sign does not tell you which road is the one leading to destruction and which road leads to your destination. Then you see two men near the intersection. You have been warned about the two men and know that one can never lie and will always tell the truth. You also know that the other can never tell the truth and will always tell a lie. The problem is you do not know which man will tell you the truth and which one will tell you a lie if you ask, “Which road is the safe one?” What do you do?
You ask either one of the men this question. “Which way would the other man tell me is the safe way to go?” If you ask the man who could never lie, he would tell you exactly what the man who could not tell the truth would say and point you to the path of destruction. If you asked the man who could not tell the truth the same question, he would give you the answer opposite to that which the man who could never lie would say and point you to the path of destruction. So, no matter who answered the question, “Which way would the other man tell me is the safe way to go?” you would always be pointed to the path of destruction. So, you would take the other road.
Well, if that rattled your brain, go back to it later and sort through the logic. For now, let us just consider the big truth. Until you knew which way the safe way was, you would not take either one and just wait. This is the way we should use the final filter, “Am I absolutely certain?” when discerning your thoughts and ideas to see what direction you should choose. If you are not certain, you should wait until you are.
It is a fact of life. Decisions are unavoidable. We must make them. Some are more critical than others. Earlier in this book, we looked at Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. There we saw that the Jews of the Northern Kingdom were trying to worship both the one true God, Jehovah and the false god, Baal. Thus, Elijah takes them to a point of decision. One that they had to make.
“And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.” (1 Kings 18:21, ESV)
The interesting thing in this situation is that the Israelites “did not answer him a word.” They could not make a decision that to us seems quite obvious. So, for the moment they stood at the place where there were two roads. One would lead to certain destruction and the other to blessing. Now, the answer to their dilemma would have been obvious if they knew the Scriptures and had true faith. However, their problem was one of faithlessness.
Because they stood at the point of decision and would not or could not choose a path, Elijah proposed the contest between the prophets of Baal and himself to prove that the one true God, Jehovah was the true God. As you remember the contest was that the Elijah and the prophets of Baal each would build an altar and place a slain Bull on the wood on it. Then each would call upon their god to bring fire down on the altar. The prophets of Baal tied all day and failed. Then Elijah called upon the true God and fire came down from heaven and consumed the bull, the wood, all the water that Elijah used to saturate everything, and the stones of the alter so that nothing was left, not even the dust. At this display, the Israelites made a decision. When the Israelites saw this, “they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.’” (1 Kings 18:39, ESV)
Some decisions in life are relatively inconsequential. Choices like, which shoe do I put on first or what shirt do I wear today, have little consequence. Yet, many of our choices are very significant. There is no choice more vital than that which is of eternal significance, that is to trust in Jesus Christ alone for eternal salvation. Yet, there are many others that are also vital in our lives. The are decisions such as how to serve the Lord, where to worship, choices of occupations, financial choices, relational choices, etc. When we have thoughts and ideas in these areas, we need to make a decision and we need to know the decision is the right one. Yet, this is not always easy. So, we pass the thoughts and ideas we have through six filters.
Filter #1 – Am I living like a spiritual person?
Filter # 2 – Does God’s word say it is ok?
Filter #3 – Are my methods correct?
Filter #4 – Am I trusting the Lord or myself?
Filter #5 – What do other of spiritual people think?
Filter #6 – Is my motive to glorify God alone?
Then we come to the seventh filter, “Am I absolutely positive?” This is truly another filter of faith. Yet, it is the final question that we must ask ourselves. Moreover, until we know for certain, we cannot and should not move forward.
Renewing the Heart 