Seeking His Guidance in Decision Making

I don’t know about you, but I certainly have my own battles with wanting to control things. I’ve even been called slightly pushy on occasion. My family would absolutely give a head nod on that description.

In our professional lives, we are expected to take control of situations, prevent problems, fix problems when they arise and prevent those problems from happening again. As a leader, that expectation is essential to our day-to-day negotiation of our landscape. You might agree that it is far easier to do all of these things if we exert control over situations. Sounds logical to me.

Letting go of that control is hard, even if it’s just a small surrender. The question really isn’t, “Is success possible without controlling our situations at work and as leaders?” Instead, we should ask ourselves, “How do we rationalize and balance between letting things happen to us and letting God guide us?

I think where the difference lies and where the clarity starts for me is that we aren’t actually giving up being effective and thoughtful managers of our surroundings. We aren’t just throwing our hands up in the air and hoping God makes the best of our situation. I don’t think that is what He meant for us to do in our lives. He gave us gifts that we have the ability to use to glorify Him.

But what I do think He wants for us is to seek Him first in our decisions on how we approach situations. Include God in our decision-making process. Talk with Him and ask for His wisdom and guidance. He wants us to let go of whatever we are trying to do on our own so we open up to what God alone can do.

God gives us a choice in every decision that we encounter. It’s up to us to exercise that thought process on a moment by moment and decision by decision basis. It’s kind of like developing a strong physique. It doesn’t happen unless you get into the gym on a regular basis and work those muscles.

The wonderful glory of God is that He knows we try. And when we forget, or when we think our way is the best way, He forgives us and waits for us to try again.?