There are however many decisions about which there is no biblical command.  If you read that you are not to commit adultery and you happen to be involved in that very sin when you read the command and are convicted, you may (should) want to stop immediately.  Now comes another decision—how should you break off the sinful relationship?

About this latter decision, there is no specific command. Should you go personally to the other party and tell her/him your decision? Send an email? A letter? Perhaps phone? Possibly go together with your pastor to break the news?  How will you make this decision?

First, it is clear that you should use wisdom.  In all judgment calls, like this one, wisdom from the application of larger biblical principles must prevail.  But, perhaps, you don’t know what is the wisest thing to do.  What then?

Pray?

OK.  That’s good.  What else?

Proverbs says that there is safety in a multitude of counselors.  Speaking with an elder or two—or with your pastor—you may receive the help that you need.  It may include warnings to avoid some courses of action, it may include principles having to do with exercising care in dealing with the other person. And, because of the peculiarities of your circumstances, the solution may be one, in some other situation, it might be different. Wisdom, expediency, and caution are biblically-commanded factors to consider as you seek to please God by your action.

Check out our online course, The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

1. What to do on Thursday
2. The Christian’s Guide to Guidance 
3. A Call for Discernment

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
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– Twitter: @noutheticstud
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The post Decisions appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Check out our online course, The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

1. What to do on Thursday
2. The Christian’s Guide to Guidance 
3. A Call for Discernment

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Decision Making appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Are you serious, or are you presenting me with a conundrum?

“No. I’m dead serious. I have a decision to make as to whether or not to do something. I’d like to do it but I don’t know whether its something that the Lord would approve of.””

Ah. I see.

“And it’s been bugging me for days. I can’t tell you what it is, either. I have to keep the matter quiet until I decide. Without any data, do you think you can help?”

Possibly. Let’s consider the matter abstractly—strictly from the side of the principle involved.

“You mean, in something like whether or not I feel a prompting in my spirit or not. Or whether I feel peace about the matter? Both of those ideas have been suggested. But the problem is, I don’t feel anything but confused,”

Good!

“Good? What do you mean good? Do you approve of me being confused?”

Certainly—I’m glad you haven’t had any feelings that you interpreted as God’s direction. Those ideas are never taught in the Bible, and have led many people into serious trouble. To try to follow feelings as a guide is like trying to catch a wave. They’re never the same. Feelings are up one day and down the next with the weather, or what you sate for lunch. Even apart from not being a Bible instruction, it’s on its foolish when you think about it.

“It didn’t feel right, I’ll admit.”

Didn’t feel right? There you go—depending on feelings anyway!

“What I meant is it didn’t seem right.”

A bit better. But what if you had said, “I considered the matter, and I didn’t find any biblical basis for proceeding with it?” Don’t you think that a statement something like that—where you are looking for an objective answer from God’s Standard would have been better? Of course, you would have had to do so to be honest.

“Well, I did look at the Bible, and I couldn’t find anything to help.”

There is a biblical principle that may fit your case.

“Tell me about it.”

It’s found in Romans 14.

“I thought that book was all about theology, and stuff like that.”

Well, there’s certainly allot of theology in Romans, for sure, but that’s not all that’s there. Some very practical matters are there which—rightly so—are based on theological principles.

“Oh. Well tell me about Romans 14.”

O.K. Here’s what he writes in verse 23,

But whosoever doubts is condemned if he eats, because he doesn’t eat in faith; and whatsoever isn’t done in faith is sin.

“But my problem has nothing to do with eating.”

I didn’t think that it would.

“Well, then, why bring it up?”

I told you we were going to examine a principle that might help you. The principle is “whatsoever isn’t done in faith is sin.”

“How does that help?”

Just this way. There were Romans who didn’t know whether or not they should eat certain foods—we needn’t go into that here—because they thought that doing so might be sin. Paul says, until you are sure that it isn’t sinful to do so, don’t. It’s that simple. I like to call it the “Holding principle.” You put the matter on hold until you can determine biblically whether or not it is or isn’t sin to do something.

“Hmmm I think O see it now: to move ahead in this matter would be sin if suspect it might be. But what if it isn’t sin?”

At this point, that doesn’t matter. Until you determine from the Bible (not from feelings) that it isn’t sin, you should take no further action. Of course, if you determine it is, that settles the matter. But of you’re not sure, you shouldn’t go ahead because if you do, you are doing something that you think might be sin, can you do that in God’s sight ? Of course not! To so what you think might be sin (even if it really isn) is sin on your part because of your attitude . . .”

“What do you mean my attitude?”

Simply this, you would be willing to do something that you thought might be sin—that is a sinful attitude. So even if the act—whatever it is—isn’t sin; your attitude in doing it is sin.

“Got it! I put it on hold until I’m sure, biblically, that it’s OK to move ahead.”

You did.

Blessings!

Check out our online course, The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

1. What to do on Thursday
2. The Christian’s Guide to Guidance 
3. A Call for Discernment

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post What to Do About It appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Have you thought it through thoroughly enough that you can give a biblical case for the job that you’re pursuing, the programs that you watch on TV, the church you attend, the places you go regularly, the music you listen to, the friends that you associate with, the counselor that you see, the way you raise your children, the time you spend with others, the use you make of your money, the . . . (you can finish it off)?

The point, of course, is to get you to begin thinking about such things if you haven’t already.
We ought to please God in all of our decisions, and . . .

Because, in one sense, life is decision. This is an important thing to consider.

Since there are so many decisions to make, you need to have a conscience that has been marinated in biblical knowledge, so that when decisions come along—as they inevitably do day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, you will instinctively make the right ones.

How can you obtain such a conscience? By doing what I said—soaking up as much biblical knowledge as possible. How do you go about doing that? By making some good decisions right now.

Think about that!

Looking for a place to start?  Check out:  What to do on Thursday, by Jay Adams

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Decisions appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.