How to make decisions you won’t regret …

One thing that keeps all who serve in the White House as President of the United States busy every day is the act of making decisions.

Lots of them, and some can be quite important.

Former President Reagan, known for telling entertaining and yet insightful stories, described how he learned to make decisions early in life, as reported in Today in the Word:

Former president Ronald Reagan once had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler asked young Reagan, “Do you want square toes or round toes?” Unable to decide, Reagan didn’t answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days. Several days later the cobbler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted on his shoes. Reagan still couldn’t decide, so the shoemaker replied, “Well, come by in a couple of days. Your shoes will be ready.” When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! “This will teach you to never let people make decisions for you,” the cobbler said to his indecisive customer. “I learned right then and there,” Reagan said later, “if you don’t make your own decisions, someone else will.”

That can partly be sound advice for an American President, but choosing to be the sole source from which we make decisions in our lives can turn out to be something we regret, and yield negative consequences we have to live with.

On one occasion, that was the case for Joshua and the people of Israel he led. They made a decision with themselves as the source; the outcome was something they quickly regretted but had to live with. To understand what led to such poor decision-making, we need adequate context to the story:

“Now all the kings west of the Jordan River heard about what had happened. These were the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who lived in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea as far north as the Lebanon mountains. These kings combined their armies to fight as one against Joshua and the Israelites. But when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old, patched wineskins. They put on worn-out, patched sandals and ragged clothes. And the bread they took with them was dry and moldy. When they arrived at the camp of Israel at Gilgal, they told Joshua and the men of Israel, ‘We have come from a distant land to ask you to make a peace treaty with us.’ The Israelites replied to these Hivites, ‘How do we know you don’t live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a treaty with you.’ They replied, ‘We are your servants.’ ‘But who are you?’ Joshua demanded. ‘Where do you come from?’ They answered, ‘Your servants have come from a very distant country. We have heard of the might of the Lord your God and of all he did in Egypt. We have also heard what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River — King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan (who lived in Ashtaroth). So our elders and all our people instructed us, “Take supplies for a long journey. Go meet with the people of Israel and tell them, ‘We are your servants; please make a treaty with us.’ This bread was hot from the ovens when we left our homes. But now, as you can see, it is dry and moldy. These wineskins were new when we filled them, but now they are old and split open. And our clothing and sandals are worn out from our very long journey,” Joshua 9:1-13.

Those 13 verses lead us to the next verse, one sentence that reveals why the decision Joshua and the Israelites made would soon bring regret and force them to live with the consequences:

“So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the Lord,” Joshua 9:14.

Acting on their own, they reasoned and acted in a way that, on the surface, seemed to be wise and with a measure of caution — they did, indeed, inspect the food the Gibeonites pointed to as proof of their claims, but they did not consult the Lord. By their own actions, they couldn’t see the act of deception, they couldn’t read the thoughts of these visitors or know their intentions or their hearts.

But God could do all of that.

But they didn’t consult with the Lord. Instead, they relied on their own understanding of the situation; doing so resulted in regret. Without consultation with God, they believed the Gibeonite deception and made a peace treaty with them that guaranteed their safety. Only after taking this step would they learn they had been deceived; that caused regretful consequences they would have to live with (you can read about that in the rest of Joshua 9).

So, how can we make decisions we won’t regret? By FIRST consulting with the Lord.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take,” Proverbs 3:5-6.

Scotty