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5 Time-Tested Guaranteed Ways to Make Terrible Decisions

Abraham, the father of many nations, the first of the great patriarchs, the man whose faith was credited to him as righteousness, had a habit of making terrible decisions.

He decided to let his nephew have first choice of the promised land, he decided to tell the Egyptians his wife was his sister and then he decided to use that trick again with King Abimelek. Abraham’s worst decision came when he decided to help God out by sleeping with his wife’s maid.

Thousands of years later, we are still paying the price for that brilliant move. (If you’re not familiar with the story you can read it here.)

Based on that story, here are Abraham’s top five tips for making terrible decisions:

1. Listen to the wrong voices

Genesis 16:2 says that Abraham listened to the voice of Sarah. It is usually good to listen to your wife, but there are times when she is not the authoritative voice. God gave his promise directly to Abraham, so he was the authority on how the promise should be fulfilled. Sarah brought many concerns to the table, which were major concerns for her, but not pertinent to God’s promise. I can’t imagine the pain she felt married to the “father of many nations” when she had no children. I’m sure she thought she was being incredibly generous offering her maid to move the promise along. But she was not in a position to make this decision.

The immediate concerns of people surrounding a leader can drown out the voices a leader should focus on in making wise decisions. Sometimes a wise leader may seem cruel when he makes a choice that prolongs or even increases the pain his co-workers or family are feeling, but it is much kinder than making a bad decision with longer lasting consequences.

2. Confuse God’s promise with my timeline.

God promised Abraham as many children as there are stars in the sky, but he was still sitting on zero. Abraham could hear the clock ticking just as loudly as Sarah; they weren’t getting any younger and the window of opportunity was almost sealed shut. Now is the time for Abraham to take matters into his own hand. After all, God helps those who help themselves.

A key principle in making godly decisions is to remember that God is not bound by human timelines. We are not God’s project managers making sure his trains run on time. There are times when the best decision a leader can make is no decision at all. There is a time to act, but there is also a time to simply trust God and wait. Imagine how different the world would be now if Abraham had waited.

3. Do what is pragmatic over what is right.

It made complete sense for Abraham to sleep with Hagar. It was unthinkable that Abraham might die without an heir. It was obvious that Sarah couldn’t have children, if Abraham were to have an heir, something had to be done. This was the pragmatic choice.There was only one drawback: Sleeping with your wife’s maid is immoral. It was as immoral in Genesis as it is today. God was very clear that a man was to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife. There is no maid in the equation. Abraham chose what was logical over what was moral.