A SPURIOUS PEACE

How do you pray about and make decisions? I'm sure most of us have heard people say something like this in response to why they have made a certain decision ~ "I had a peace about it." What does this mean? I've been thinking about this especially as it relates to choosing what kind of education our children should receive. Today is the first day of school here. Ten days ago a friend of mine put her children into public school for the first time after homeschooling for two years. She said she truly felt it was what God wanted her to do. She is now coming to have deep regrets after the first week. She mentioned that others have said that they've prayed about it and felt that God wanted their children to be in public school. My concern here is how we discern the will of God. Is it mainly by what we feel? While I won't deny the role of emotions in decision making I strongly feel that they need to take a backseat to more important methods of discernment. When we pray do we first of all surrender the outcome and decision to the Lord or are we mainly praying for His approval of a decision we've already almost come to? Are we seeking to have our desires in line with His? Are we asking that our minds be renewed to the truth of His word that we might approve what the will of God is or are we praying according to our own assumptions and worldly presuppositions? Are we willing to do whatever the Word says or do we try to rationalize with what the Word clearly says. I admit there are some areas of life that the Bible doesn't specifically address but that doesn't mean that the Word is not sufficient for faith and practice. I submit that if in our daily lives we've made it a determined practice to have our minds renewed by the Word of God, delighting in it and being saturated with it; if we make it our continual practice to surrender our desires to Him in order that they will be in line with His desires; if we apply the psalmist's wisdom and walk not in the path of sinners; if in the end it's His glory we are after and not our own comfort then the process of making decisions will be a whole lot clearer. That doesn't mean, however, that it will be easier. To be Christ's disciple means that you will have to swim upstream. You will probably look a whole lot different than your neighbors, or maybe even your friends at church.

I emailed my friend this article that I've found on a couple blogs. (Was it you Karen?) She said it was thorougly convicting and very helpful. I am not in the position to make educational decisions for each family I know. I have my own garden to cultivate, weed and attend to. But it just bothers me when I hear Christians say, "That decision is fine for your family, but we've come to an equal but opposite position on that issue." That line of reason sound more like humanism than Christianity.