The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-R, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 20."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1982. All Rights Reserved.

Question

If we make a decision in our lives and we desire to do His will, and our heart really wants to do His will, is it still possible to make the wrong decision?

Answer

Sure. But it’s also possible for the Lord to overrule it. You know, I mean, there’s a sense in which, if everything is right, and everything is pure, and you’re really seeking to do God’s will, I mean, we could say that you’re going to make the right decision. But I don’t know how to put this—you know, you could be going along really well, and then there could enter in some other motivation at the very end, and trigger you one way or another. But basically and generally, I think if you’re heart is right, you’re going to make right decisions. It is possible, that even in the wrong decision, the Lord will overrule. I can illustrate it—a few years ago, we didn’t own the property down the street. We have a parking lot on the left side down there where the buses are and across the street where the big vacant lot with a lot of crummy houses in the back, we’re going to put a field over there, a baseball field and stuff eventually, I think. It’s going to be when I’m too old to use it, probably, but our kids will use it.

But one night—I think I shared this will you some years ago—one of the elders came in and said, "Man," he said, "You know, we just discovered—this is about I don’t know five or six years ago—we have an extra $300,000 in the bank we didn’t know about." And the guy said, "What? This is impossible." "No, we’ve gone through all of our accounting, and we have an extra $300,000 and we have wanted to get this property down the street. It’s the last property on Roscoe between this freeway and the San Diego freeway and the end of the valley. And, boy, the Lord just preserved it, so let’s buy it." So the next morning we called up the Beatrice Foods or somebody like that, somebody—a food company owned it. And we said, "How much do you want?" And they said, "$300,000." We said, "We’ll take it." And so they said, "Fine. Come down" and we signed the papers and bought it. The next day a sub-divider came in with a $500,000 offer, had the whole thing subdivided to put up condominiums. And he missed it by one day, and we didn’t know anything about it. I mean it had been sitting there for years and we just one day did that. And then after we done that, the next day our bookkeeper came back and said, "You know, we made a mistake; we don’t have that money." So we had to borrow it, and the Lord overruled. I mean, we made a wrong decision based on wrong information. And yet, if we hadn’t done that, where would we be now? We desperately need that parking.

So there’s a sense in which if your heart is right, you’ll make right decisions, but even if you fail based upon lack of information or human frailty, God will overrule that. I mean, the Lord used our ignorance to accomplish His will. But I don’t think you have to fear that if you’re really walking in the Lord and you’re really obedient, you’re going to make stupid mistakes and pay the rest of your life. I think God’s promise is, you obey Me and I’ll bless you and give you guidance.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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