10 Steps to Help You Make the Right Decisions

It is said that history turns on small hinges. The same could be said for your life--sometimes a seemingly small decision may turn out to be the big decision that shapes your life. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale compiled these 10 steps to help you make the right decisions.

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1. Get Quiet

Only a quiet mind can think at maximum efficiency. Find a quiet place, sit down and compose yourself.

2. Repeat Psalm 73:24

Repeat Psalm 73:24 three times,"Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." We have access to God's advice and counsel. How can you go wrong if you take His advice? In any decision you are about to make, affirm that you are receiving God's advice.

3. Pray and Think

Conceive of God's advice passing into your mind. Wait for Him to transmit the right idea. If you must have His advice today, you will get it. If you do not need it until next week, you will have it then. Believe.

4. Invite Jesus to Enter Your Mind

Say Philippians 2:5 three times, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." It has been said, "We can nestle into Plato's brain and think from there." That means that we can get up into the vast brain of Plato and see things as he saw them. But colossal as was Plato's brain, there is an even greater brain, into the heights of which we can climb and see with clarity and breadth of knowledge far above ourselves. Imagine therefore that you are considering your problem in the great brain of Christ.

5. Ask yourself, "What would Jesus do in this decision?

Ask yourself, "What would Jesus do in this decision?" He would do the right thing.Ask God to take all wrong and error out of your heart.

6. Do Not Hurry

Never force a decision. Allow your problem to simmer in the mind.

7. Thank God

God is giving you the right answer. Thank Him for the great happiness that is in your heart, knowing that you are so spiritually right that the element of error has been profoundly lessened. You will get the right answer.

Pray hard and think hard. When the time is up and you must make a decision, pray, "Lord, show me the next thing to do" The first idea that comes into my mind is the answer.

9. Trust Your Answer

Having received your answer, trust it. Take it with faith and thanksgiving. If you have sought God's counsel and prayed earnestly, your answer will come up as a clear, bright light burning in the mind. Trust it. God will see you through.