Standing by Our Decisions

Nobody likes to be told they were wrong. We all have to make decisions, from choice of latte through to those that will impact the lives of others. Once the decision is made, we typically try to defend it to the hilt, because admitting we were wrong doesn't come easily to us humans.

So the injunction by the King to his newly appointed judges in 2 Chronicles 19:6-7 is no surprise - 'Judge carefully' - because they don't want to have to discover they were wrong.

Yet there is an interesting slant to his instruction: 'The Lord is with you whenever you give a verdict'. Presumably that means that God somehow goes with the flow even if the verdict is not actually sound?

If so, it surely reminds us that God is a God of grace. He will allow us to make decisions, both good and bad, and allow them to unfold. In other words, He stands by (at least in some way) our decisions.

I guess from that there are two practical applications:

1. If someone else makes a bad decision, we need to work out how to extend grace to them too.
2. We need to remember that just because God seems to be going along with our decision, it doesn't necessarily mean it is good! So we need to be open to the prospect that, in time, we may discover we were wrong after all.