Decision-Making and Ethics – Prayer

For most of us, life is full. Many times, it is overly full. We have jobs, school, family, our health, our family’s health, keeping our homes in order—the list could go on. Each part of our lives brings with it both blessing and burden. And the longer our list grows, the more decisions we have to make. Sometimes, the right choices are obvious. But the ones that are not obvious keep us awake at night and add to our feeling of burden.

Starting today (and continuing with our next three articles), we are going to take a look at decision-making and ethics from a Christian perspective and discuss what we should do when the Bible does not give us obvious answers for the decisions we have to make. In this article, we will look at the value we can find in prayer.

Prayer is discussed often in the Bible, and there are many examples of prayers in both the Old and New Testaments. Perhaps the most famous example is what we call the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus shared it with His disciples to give them an example they could follow for their own prayers. It was meant to be a template to help guide all of their prayers—and ours, too. One of the most important things to observe is that it begins with complete focus on God: “Our Father…your name be honored as holy” (Matthew 6:9b). It isn’t until a couple of verses later that the attention shifts to a personal request, and it’s important to be aware that even the requests are God-centered, in that they communicate complete dependence on God. Most interesting for our subject today, though, is the second thought in the prayer: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10). With these statements, Jesus indicates that prayer is meant to change us, conforming us to His will, and that’s why it is an essential part of helping lead us to the right things to do and right choices to make.

We are better able to choose the right things when we get to know God’s will. We get to know God’s will when we get to know God, and we get to know God, in part, through prayer.

This idea of seeking God’s will and being conformed to that is also supported in Romans. The first couple of verses of Chapter 12 say this: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” We are better able to choose the right things when we get to know God’s will. We get to know God’s will when we get to know God, and we get to know God, in part, through prayer.

Earlier in Romans, Paul shared another reason why prayer is so valuable when it comes to making good decisions. In Chapter 8, he says a string of things that give us encouragement when we are feeling most burdened by the weight of our decisions. He says that “we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings” (Romans 8:26b). Did you catch that? The good news here is that even when our decisions have us overwhelmed or confused, when we approach God, the Spirit is praying the right things on our behalf. And Paul follows up this statement by bringing us back to the will of God. He says next, “He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). So the Spirit’s prayers are for God’s will, which we have already acknowledged helps us to make the right choices. And as further encouragement for our burdens of decision, Paul also says, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). This is encouraging because it tells us that if we are growing in wisdom and knowledge of God, and seeking after His will, God is going to take the decisions we make and work them out for good. It might take a winding road to get there, but His plans will come to pass.

Keeping all of this in mind, the next time we are facing a difficult decision or wish the Bible would just tell us which job offer we should accept, we should quickly go to God in prayer, asking Him to change us and give us the wisdom that we know only comes through Him. When we have done that, we can then rest in knowing He will lead us to His will.

If you want to keep learning about what it looks like to live in a relationship with God, check out our other Experience Commentary articles and explore more resources on our website, experiencecc.com.