Decision Time

What guides you? What kind of thought process do you go through before making decisions? I read this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) that struck a chord with me. I needed this reminder as I'm sure many of you do:

"We must learn to know the Scriptures again, as the Reformers and our fathers knew them. We must know the Scriptures first and foremost for the sake of our salvation. But besides this, there are ample reasons that make this requirement exceedingly urgent. How, for example, shall we ever attain certainty and confidence in our personal and church activity if we do not stand on solid biblical ground? It is not our heart that determines our course, but God's Word. But who in this day has any proper understanding of the need for scriptural proof? How often do we hear innumerable arguments 'from life' and 'from experience' put forward as the basis for the most crucial decisions but the argument from Scripture is missing. And this authority would perhaps point in exactly the opposite direction. It is not surprising, or course, that the person who attempts to cast discredit upon their wisdom should be the one who himself does not seriously read, know, and study the Scriptures. But one who will not learn to handle the Bible for himself is not an evangelical Christian."

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together. (London: SCM, 1983), pg. 39.