A message from the late Dr. Charles Stanley has been viewed more than a million times. In the message Dr. Stanley shares a biblical strategy for how to make wise decisions.
Dr. Charles Stanley Shared His Step By Step Plan
The preacher and teacher explained the importance of making wise decisions. He said, “Your life is made up of decisions. You’ve been making them all of your life. And the most important decision you will ever make is the decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Many people have no plan for making decisions. They plan many things, but they often forget to ask God for His plans.”
Dr. Charles Stanley On Making Wise Decisions
1. Clear your heart of any known sin.
Dr. Stanley explained that sin and the wisdom and knowledge of God can’t coexist: “Sin introduces confusion in our minds and hearts, hinders our capacity to hear and receive from God. What the Holy Spirit will do is He’s going to point to you whatever there is in your life. It may be a relationship, it may be a habit, it may be the way you think, but whatever is not of God, He’s going to point it out to you.”
Furthermore, he elaborated on how to clear our hearts of any known sin by confessing and repenting. “Confessing sin means that “I agree with God that this is sin in my life.” Followed by repentance on the basis of God that you say this “doesn’t fit in my life, I repent of these sins, which means I turn away from it. I walk away from it, and I want to do absolutely whatever God says,” he said.
2. Bring your desires to a position of neutrality.
A prayer that helped Dr. Stanley was about asking for the desires of God: “Lord, I want what you want. I don’t know what that is right now. And I don’t know your will right now, but I really want what You want.”
He then shared how God knows each and every single person, so He sees and knows what is best. “You’re asking the one person who knows everything about you, knows what is best for you, knows what will work for you, knows what will make you happy, He also knows what will make you miserable.”
Dr. Charles Stanley In Making Wise Decisions II
3. Exercise patience.
In making wise decisions, he also emphasized how important patience is: “God is getting us ready for the answer. God’s pauses are very important in His plan for our life. This is why you can’t come up and make decisions about important things in your life, or things that don’t seem to be very important, when you are not sure exactly what God has said to you. So, you have to exercise patience and you have to be willing to wait. Waiting is not simply to mark time. Rather it’s to live in a confident expectation, anticipation of his actions on their behalf that God has heard you and He’s going to answer that.”
READ: FRIENDS WHO USED TO PRACTICE NEW AGE TOGETHER NOW LIVING FOR JESUS
4. Be alert to pressure.
Dr. Stanley warned the congregation about the pressure they would face: “Be careful of that pressure. There are two types of pressure: external pressure and internal pressure. The external pressure is pressure from your friends. You have to be very careful who you’re listening to. Then, there’s internal pressure. You can get it from the outside, you can get it from the inside.”
Dr. Charles Stanley In Making Wise Decisions III
5. Persistent prayer.
He quoted what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing,” even if there’s no immediate answer from God.
He continued to share, “Just because you don’t have an answer, you don’t stop praying. God didn’t promise to give us answers or to give us direction. God takes great delight in watching us respond to Him. In watching how we move from doubt and fear and unrest and all the rest to begin to trust Him and to begin to be confident. Prayer is the greatest gift God has ever given us apart from salvation.”
6. Rest in God’s Promises.
Lastly, Dr. Stanley gave a reminder and encouraged listeners to read the Bible. “The Bible is the most valuable resource we have in making decisions because it’s full of wisdom. And it’s the mind of God in print. If you want to know what God thinks about anything, get in the word of God. The Word filters my thinking when it’s not exactly right, it filters my desires. Our minds are continually bombarded by what the world thinks and how they think. But when you get in the word of God, we begin to read his Word; he sifts, and while He’s sifting, He’s also building our faith. He gives us promise after promise after promise, He will hear and answer our prayer,” he said.
Reference | In Touch Ministries
Header Image: Charles.Stanley [@charles_stanleymin]. Pastor Preaching. Instagram, 29 Mar. 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/CqXvitiOiYv/
