Purpose & Calling
I go back and forth on every decision until the moment passes and it decides itself. How do I break out of that?
“And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”
Elijah stands in front of a crowd on Mount Carmel that had not exactly rejected God, but had declined to choose between him and Baal. His question exposes their position as a decision rather than a delay. The Hebrew image is of limping between two opinions, unsteady on both feet. Refusing to choose was itself a settled choice, and it was already costing them.
“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”
Paul is refereeing a dispute in Rome over sacred days and food, where believers were paralysed by fear of getting it wrong and by each other's judgement. Rather than issuing a ruling from above, he tells them to reach a settled mind before God and then act on it. He treats honest conviction as an acceptable basis for going ahead.
A path forward
Give each pending decision a deadline this week and write it on the calendar. An unmade decision is still a decision, only made worse by drift.
Limit yourself to three sources of input and then close the research. Past that point, more information is usually anxiety wearing a sensible coat.
Pray a short committing prayer once you have decided, handing the outcome over, then refuse to reopen it for thirty days.
Closing verse
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
- Joshua 24:15
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