Have you ever rushed into a decision, just to realize that it wasn't the right one? Or even worse--that you had been deceived? Have you ever thought afterward, "I guess I should have asked God about that one before I rushed into it"?
In Joshua 9 we read the story of the Gibeonites. Israel had been busy defeating all their enemies in the promised land, as God had commanded them. God had told the Israelites to completely wipe out the nations near them, because these were perverse nations (think "infant sacrifice" and child prostitutes) and God did not want Israel to chase after these peoples' gods or practices. The Gibeonites were freaked out by everything going on, but they weren't stupid. They sent an envoy to Israel with "worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wine-skins, worn-out and torn and mended, with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly" (Joshua 9:4-5).
Why would they do this? When they got into Israel's camp they told them that they had heard about what Israel had been up to and that they were from a distant land seeking peace with Israel. They tricked Joshua into making peace with them and into making a covenant with them to let them live.
Later on, the Israelites found out what happened--that the Gibeonites were actually from right next door--and debated what to do, but because of their covenant with them they chose to let them live.
Do you know what was missing in this narrative? Israel, God's chosen people with whom he had given commands and blessings, never once asked God's opinion on the matter. They ended up having to make concessions due to their wrong decision.
Now, I'm not trying to say that we need to pray about every decision we make in life. That would be insane! Asking God what you should have for dinner or if you should watch television or a movie is overkill. But when we look at making a life-altering decision, or one that could have consequences or anything substantial; as Christ-followers, shouldn't we give him the opportunity to show us how to proceed? Isn't that the definition of "following"?
So next time you have a decision to make, let me encourage you to take some time and pray about it. You never know what might happen when you ask God's opinion.
How has asking God's opinion worked in your life? Leave your comments below or on Facebook!
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--Pastor Stephen Valcourt
Like many millions of users around the world, I faithfully updated my iPad to iOS 7.0 today. As I was trying to do so I can upon a problem: an error saying I could not download it. Not to be dissuaded, I tried again. And again. And again. After about ten tries it finally downloaded. Then I received another error. It turns out my battery was too low to complete the update.
That was no problem. I simply plugged in my iPad and hit install. It sat there thinking before telling me the update was unavailable. So I tried again. And again. And again. Finally, after many more tries it successfully updated. Yay! I was among that special group of individuals running the latest software on their Apple device.
A question that I believe every follower of Christ needs to ask himself is "How often do I think about God?". Seriously, when we read passages like Deuteronomy 6:6-12 where Moses tells the people of Israel to think on God always and do whatever necessary to think about him; and like 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that tells us to pray continually, we should get the sense that faith in God is not something that we do for a half hour each day followed by an hour on Sunday. We are called to a 24/7, 365.25 days a year, every year of our life kind of Christianity! We may be busy, but it doesn't matter, because nothing should be held higher than our faith in God. This means that we need to focus in on Him throughout our day, but the question of how we can do this still remains.
First and foremost, we should always start with a daily personal devotional time. This means spending time reading God's Word (the Bible) and asking him to speak to us through it (and then applying what is revealed in our life). It also means spending time in meaningful prayer and communication with God. This isn't a "wish list" of miraculous tidbits we want from God, but a true conversation with our Father in heaven.
Once you have settled into a consistent time of devotion with God, it may be time to focus yourself even more and dig even deeper. In 1988, Richard Foster wrote a spectacular book on the spiritual disciplines entitled 
Humanity has an interesting tendency to blame bad circumstances on God and then proceed to take the credit for any and all good things that happen to them. Christians are no less vulnerable to this inclination towards self-exhaultation. We have to be very careful not to shift the attention from what God has done to what we have done. When we pray for healing, what is our attitude? Are we hoping for a miracle so we can show how holy we are, or are we hoping for a miracle so that God can be glorified in the situation and the individual can be healed? When our car is on empty and we pray that we can make it to the next town to fill up and we make it against all odds, do we pat ourselves on the back for our mileage estimates and fuel-saving driving skills, or do we thank God for honouring our request? One more example: when we are given the opportunity to lead someone to salvation in Jesus Christ, what is our heart attitude? Is it a self-congratulatory high five for entering the club of making headway for the kingdom? Do we excitedly tell people what happened for the attention and congratulation? Or do we thank God for the opportunity and for working in that person's life? Do we tell others what happened in order to give them the opportunity to celebrate God's grace and so that his name can be glorified? In everything, we must give God credit where credit is due.
In Numbers 20:2-13 we read the story of Moses and the waters at Meribah. The people of Israel previously had complained in another location about not having water, and at that time God had had Moses hit a rock with his staff and water flowed forth. Here at Meribah the people of Israel complained about a lack of water once again, but this time God had a different plan in mind for supplying for their needs. He told Moses, "Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle."[ref]Numbers 20:8[/ref]
Rather than obey God, Moses (perhaps in exasperation after dealing with the Israelites' incessant whining for so long) hit the rock twice. Rather than show the Israelites something new, he used a formula that had already been seen and relegated the supernatural to what could be viewed as a ritualistic pattern (essentially a method of controlling the divine--often our apostate doctrines come about from us trying to take control into our own hands), easily repeated by the right human hands.