This Day’s Thought

Since today is the start of the “Holy Week”, I would like to share with all of you what I regularly receive  from my subscription from This Day’s Thought….and here is the first one…

Good Decisions Make Good Men By Eric Elder

www.theranch.org

Do you have a decision to make today?  Maybe it’s a decision about your job, your family, your future.  Maybe it’s about your health, your friends, or your finances.  Maybe it’s about who to marry, where to go to school, or where to go to church.

Whatever decision you’re facing today, I want to encourage you to take the time you need to  make a good decision.  Don’t gloss over it and don’t give up on it.  Keep wrestling it out in prayer with God until both you and Him come to a conclusion.

The decision you make today could affect you for some time to come, perhaps even the rest of your life.  I want to encourage you to make a good one.

I had a dream this week that I was walking through a room, and written on the ceiling were these words:  “Good decisions make good men.”

When I woke up, I thought I must have read it wrong.  Shouldn’t it have read, “Good men make good decisions”?  But it was clearly the other way around:  “Good decisions make good men.” The more I thought about it, the more I realized the truth of those words.  Decisions are what make the man.  And good decisions make good men.

If only “good” men made good decisions, then none of us could make good decisions, because none of us are inherently good.  Even Jesus, who many would consider to be the ideal of what it means to be a “good man,” said this when someone called Him good:

“Why do you call me good?  No one is good--except God alone” (Mark 10:18).

Even though Jesus was God’s Son, He still had the free will to make His own decisions.  He was still “tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).  Jesus didn’t automatically say, “Yes,” to all the right things and, “No,” to all the wrong things.  He had to wrestle with His decisions, just like we have to wrestle with ours.

When faced with temptation, He sometimes faced a struggle so intense that God had to send  angels to minister to Him when He had finally made His decision (see Matthew 4:1-11).  When He was going to choose twelve of His followers to become His disciples, He spent the whole night beforehand in prayer (see Luke 6:12-14).

The most agonizing decision He ever had to make seems to have been the one He made the night before He died.  He agonized over that decision so much that He not only broke out in a sweat, but “His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:39-44).

Jesus had to decide whether to follow His own will, or follow the will of His Father, even though Jesus knew it could cost Him His life.  Three times Jesus went back to God in prayer to wrestle out His decision.  And three times, He came to the same conclusion that God wants you and me to come to each time we wrestle with a decision:

“...yet not my will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42b).

And for that decision, Jesus is remembered as not only a “good” man, but as the greatest man who ever lived.

You don’t have to be a “good” man or woman to make a good decision.  You just have to be willing to submit your will to God’s, and then do what He says.  As Joshua told the Israelites as they were about to enter the promised land:

“Now fear the LORD and serve Him with all faithfulness.... But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (from Joshua 24:14-16).

You can make a good decision today.  You may have to wrestle all night in prayer with God about it, but you can do it!   Jesus made a good decision for you.  I pray that you’ll make a good decision for Him today, too.

Good decisions really do make good men (and women, too!).

Let’s pray...

Father, help me to make a good decision today.  Help me to know Your will and be willing to do it, even if I have to stay up all night in prayer.  I trust You with my life, and I trust You to help me make the decision I have to make today as well.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

P.S.  As this is Holy Week, you might want to take some time to read just what Jesus went through on those last few days of His life.  You can read about it in the book of Matthew, chapters 26 and 27.  Here’s a link to an online Bible if you want to read it on the Internet.  Just type in Matthew 26-26 in the search box and choose the language or version in which you’d like to read it:  http://biblegateway.com