What is your orientation like? God’s orientation, the way He sees things is totally different than the way we see things. And we have to adjust our orientation if we are going to follow Him. Let me give you an example. When God called Abraham, he comes out of Ur of the Chaldean, comes down through the crescent and he reaches the Land of Israel. If you know Israel by map, you would see the ridge that runs north to south through the middle of the country. To the left, there is the Mediterranean sea and to the right, the Jordan Valley. Our automatic orientation is that north would be up and left and right would be east and west.
So, Abraham comes into the Land that God promises him and there is too little grass for his herd and the herd of his nephew, Lot who was with him. The two men are both shepherds and both have a lot of flock, so there was a lot of arguing between the herdsmen. Abraham is a peacemaker who believes in the promises of God that he doesn’t have to fight to fulfill those promises. So he says to Lot, “you chose which land you want, left or right and whichever one you chose, me and my herdsmen will go to the other”.
When we make our decisions based on an earthly northward pattern, we may be way off. Our cultural backgrounds may dictate certain understandings that are really not the way God sees it. God’s north may be due east and not what you are thinking. So when you think about making decisions and lining yourself up with God’s values, you have to line it up according to His word, to get His orientation on things and then you’ll be able to make a proper decision in your walk with the Lord. But if you are basing your decisions based on a cultural understanding, you might be pitching your tent near Sodom and Gomorrah and that never ends well because bad company corrupts good morals. When you are making decisions, you want to be able to line yourself up with God’s word so that when He tells you to go left or right, you will know where you are headed.
