The best leaders are those who decide to decide– and do it! If leaders don’t decide, followers have nothing to follow, which means the leader will no longer be leading.

Indecision is a decision. If we don’t keep going, turn left, turn right, or turn around– that means we’re staying stuck.

Or someone ELSE will decide for us-– which will be for THEIR best interests, not necessarily or often ours.

So we’ll either get nowhere or somewhere we don’t need to be.  Or, if we do end up in the right place, it will happen randomly– which means we’ll have no idea how we got there and no control over where we go next!

Let’s look at some real-life examples of this:

Back in the days before GPS, we had maps.  But the maps rarely, if ever, gave the details we needed to reach a specific building.  So, there we’d be, driving down the road, suddenly getting this sinking feeling that we may not be going the right way. 

Would it have helped if we’d just sat there in the car, doing nothing but pondering the fact that we might be lost?  Or would it have been better to research as much as possible– consult whoever we could (go ask a local for directions, ask someone else in the car who might know), and decide which direction to go from there?  If you’re not still sitting in your car in that spot, it means you decided and acted on it! 🙂

How about a career decision?  A lot goes into that—what school/university to go to; what to major in; what job to apply for and/or accept; whether to stay or leave that job; etc.  This is something we’ve all faced or will face. 

I get it—we’re all scared of making a wrong decision that could harm us in some way or cost us time, money, or even a lost opportunity for the best thing. But how much will it help us if we don’t decide? Will we end up in the training and work best for us? 

This applies to other areas of life.  Even marriage has the element of having to decide.  Yes, you could be “stuck for life”—so decide carefully.  But do decide. Proceed with caution, consider your options and their implications. But do say yes or no to taking the relationship further– don’t leave the guy/girl hanging! 

I’m not saying it’s easy to decide—besides overcoming fear, there’s a lot of consideration that has to go into decision-making—the bigger the decision, the more consideration it needs. 

In fact, as a young adult, a close friend and I both had such a hard time making decisions that we wanted to create an organization called “Indecision Anonymous”.  Only one problem—we couldn’t decide who would be president! J  So the organization never started.

What have you never started because you couldn’t decide?

Some people say, “We need to wait on the Lord, not take matters into our own hands.”  True.  But lack of deciding does NOT equal spiritual maturity!

Often, refusing to decide actually indicates a lack of trust in a sovereign, wise, and good God, Who is able and willing to show us the best course of action. 

Prov. 3:5-6 speaks to this: 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  Don’t depend on your own understanding.  Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your paths straight.”

In other words, ask Him and He’ll show us the best way to go. Trusting our direction, action, and future to the Lord means intentionally putting it into His hands, listening for His answer, and acting on it. Decisively.

We can never lose when we decide in faith and faithfulness—Trusting Him with the outcome, in an attitude of submission and loyalty to Him, wanting to do the right thing.

This kind of decision making is not rushing. Nor is it impulsive. It’s intentional—we set a deadline and make it an express purpose to decide.  Then, we decide well.

What do you need to decide today?