Do you remember video stores?

Remember back in the day, when you would have to physically go into a store and browse through the thousands of VHS tapes, DVD’s or if you were really lucky Blue-Ray discs, shelved alphabetically according to genre. Remember that?

I love movies. Brian and I would go to our local Video 99 on a regular basis. But as much as I love movies, I dreaded going into the video store with Brian.

Brian would take forever to decide what movie to pick. “Am I in the mood for action, sci-fi or drama?” The decision making process was frustrating. “Was this movie recommended? What were the reviews?” The ruminating would go on for a long time.

I can’t tell you the number of times I would say out of frustration, “Brian, come on, this is not the last movie you’ll ever watch! Just pick one!”

Life is full of decisions, some tougher than others. For example:

How do I know if he or she is “the one”?
Which university should I go to? What program should I take?
Should I take this job?
Is this the right time to have children?
Now that the children are grown, should we downsize?
Is now the right time to retire?

Most people hate making decisions, probably because we’re afraid of making the wrong one.

If we are honest, don’t we do the same thing with God? We’re so terrified of making the wrong decision, we lay all of our choices at God’s feet and ask, “Oh God, what is Your will for my life?”

On Sunday we concluded a four part sermon series called Praying like Paul, where we looked at four prayers that the Apostle Paul prayed. The hope being that we might add these mighty prayers to our own prayer life.

We learned to pray for power; to be active in sharing our faith; for unity in the family of God; and we concluded with Paul's prayer for the Philippian church as he prayed that they would be given the ability to discern the right thing, the best thing to do.

Here is what Paul prayed in Philippians 1:9-10a

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best”

As we pray “Oh God, what is Your will for my life?” What if God’s will for us is to know how much God love us? Then as that love abounds more and more — through God’s word, through prayer and listening for God, and through seeking Godly counsel —we develop the wisdom to discern what is best, and the faith and confidence to know God will always be with us.

Think about it. I think that is a rather liberating thought!

The key to knowing what is best is knowing God.