Reflection Leads to Better Decisions

We are told in the Bible that Jesus of Nazareth spent all night alone, deciding which of his followers would be the co-leaders in his movement. He chose 12 men, and some would say he chose very poorly. One of his choices betrayed him in the end. Most of the rest ran away when he was arrested. Two of his followers were political revolutionaries and one was a lackey/informant for the military police of the day.

But he himself makes clear that he chose these 12, all the while knowing their weaknesses. What I note is he spent all night making the decision. He spent all  night ALONE making the decision. He reflected on the personal qualities of all his closest disciples, on the voice of God, on the needs of the movement. During this deep reflection, he did not use a “Lifeline” to call a friend or poll the audience. He used a technique called

Hearing God When Making Decisions – Part 2

Our son was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis – he was only 10 months old. No Canadian child had ever been diagnosed with JRA that young. My wife and I believe that God heals and we immediately followed the biblical command to “call for the elders of the church and have them lay on hands in prayer”. We did this in full faith, believing that God could and would heal. The JRA had affected one of John’s knees, ballooning it three inches larger than the other one. Within an hour of praying, his knee began to decrease in size. Within a day, it was almost the same size as the other one, and the telltale heat of inflammation on the knee was now gone. We cried and laughed and told everyone we knew.

However, within a week the knee was swollen badly again and even warmer than before.

Now what were we to do?