Give God Glory IN the Decision Making Process - Daniel 1-6

 Daniel 2:20-23 (ESV)

Daniel answered and said:

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,

to whom belong wisdom and might.

He changes times and seasons;

he removes kings and sets up kings;

he gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to those who have understanding;

he reveals deep and hidden things;

he knows what is in the darkness,

and the light dwells with him.

To you, O God of my fathers,

I give thanks and praise,

for you have given me wisdom and might,

and have now made known to me what we asked of you,

for you have made known to us the king's matter.”

Imagine if this were our prayer before every decision we have to make!   Our recognization of God’s sovereign rule over all matters is a key to our understanding the road we travel.  We tend to want to make our lives about us and our choices.   In the above passage we read a different manner of decision making. 

The context for the above passage is that King Nebuchadnezzar has had a bad dream.  He has requested that all his enchanters, magicians, sages, and wisemen all tell him what it means.  But, he not only wants the meaning of the dream, he wants THEM to tell him the dream and the interpretation.  If they don’t, they all die.   It is probably accurate to state that none of us have every faced such a situation from those who hold power over us.   But, this is what Daniel faced.   So, he immediately turned it over to God in prayer.   He called his three colleagues and asked them to pray with them.   In their prayer they first and foremost acknowledged God’s knowledge of the situation and his sovereignty over the situation.   

This is the formula for walking with God in decision making.   This allows us to worship in decisions and not simply get lost in the variables of the decision.   Our decision making model has many moving parts.  Most people don’t have a systematic method for making decisions.  They rather rely on their intuitive nature.  But, one part that can’t just be an after thought is God’s sovereign rule over each decision we make, no matter how trivial we think it might be.   God gives wisdom and might to make decisions.  They are for the purpose of glorifying Him.    He reveals insights and knowledge for us to make decisions.   If we began with Daniel’s approach to glorify God while making a decision we might find we have more decisions that glorify God.