The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - How to Make the Right Decisions

Episode Date: December 10, 2021

We all have many choices to make in these times, whether at work or at home. We need wisdom in our life to make the right decisions. Jeff explains the differences between knowledge, wisdom, and understanding and why acting on principle rather than preference is how to align our decisions with God's will. He then concludes with four steps to help you make the right decisions. Snippet from the Show When we apply knowledge to make the right decisions, we act wisely. When we ask God and act according to his Word, our decisions bear good fruit in our lives and benefit others. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 248, making the right decision. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. And thank you for joining me again. And I am excited to talk to you today about something that is really very, very important,

particularly in the times that we're living in right now where you've got a lot of choices, right? You've got a lot of choices when it comes to what you're going to do with your business and what you're going to do with your children and the vaccine, all these different things. And while we need wisdom, we need wisdom in our life. And more specifically, you, my friend, you need wisdom. in making the right decision? The right decision? How do you go about that? What does wisdom look like when it comes to making the right decision? Is it just kind of going by the seat of my pants,

you know, and the way I feel? Or is it really based on principles? How do we make a decision? I thought about you this week as I was thinking about this show and I thought, I bet you my friend would appreciate a little bit of advice when it comes to making some decisions. By the way, I've got some good notes for you, and if you are interested in my show notes, all you have to do is text my name, one big word, Jeff Kavans, and you have to text it to the number 3377. Pretty easy, pretty biblical, 3377. We'll get you on the list, and you'll get my show notes every week. By the way, if for some reason, and I know a couple of you mentioned that you don't get them anymore, well, sign up again. I'll figure out what's going on there, but you should, should get them and they are very very valuable i know one lady she she takes the show notes for every show no kidding and she she triple punches them and puts them in one of these three ring binders and she's got like an inch or two of of notes throughout the last number of years and she can go back and refer to those okay so you got some decisions to make whether it's at work or home and you need

some wisdom well i want to share with you a few a few principles here that I think will be very, very useful. I want to start off by letting you know that wisdom is something that you are not just born with. Nobody is. In fact, it even tells us in paragraph 472 of the catechism that Jesus, the son of God, second person of the Trinity, grew in wisdom and stature. Now, does that mean he wasn't God? No, he was God, but he was also 100% man. It's a mystery there. do another show on it sometime, but it's called the hypostatic union. But anyway, he grew in wisdom. And so this is something that we grow in and how to make the right decisions. And I want to start off with by talking about the difference today between knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

Because sometimes I think people kind of lump them all together, you know. They think about wisdom and knowledge and understanding. It's all kind of the same thing. But it's really not. It really isn't all the same thing. They're very different things. The first thing you have is you have knowledge. Now, knowledge can be gained in so many different ways. You can go to college and gain an awful lot of knowledge. You can go to a lecture and you can gain knowledge. You can read a book and you can gain knowledge. You can go on the internet and, wow, you can learn just about anything. You really can. If you have the time and you have the effort, you can really learn about anything and you can become quite knowledgeable. So it is the information that's

gained through your experience and reasoning and the various acquaintances. So I would be, I would guess that you right now have a certain amount of knowledge about family, finances, about about laws, physics, science, medicine, whatever it might be, you probably have a good amount of knowledge. Well, knowledge is not equated with wisdom, and it's not equated with understanding either. So you have a bunch of knowledge. And by the way, our society today is really big into having a lot of knowledge, but not necessarily the right kind of knowledge, a lot of trivia.

it's interesting to me that there's a premium put on knowing a lot of trivia and you know and you have games where you talk about trivia and so forth but knowledge doesn't knowledge doesn't get you through life necessarily you need wisdom now wisdom is different than knowledge in that it is the ability to discern or judge what is true to judge what is right what is lasting it is really the correct application of knowledge in the real world so you take this knowledge and you think, well, what do I do with it? Well, I'm going to apply this in a way that is going to be honoring to God and it's going to be fruitful in my own life, and it's going to help me to become more like Jesus. It's going to be good for other people

as well, in good in the sense of for their eternal destiny. Good. Well, that's called wisdom. wisdom is the accurate, it is the holy, it is the correct application of all this knowledge that you have. And so if you learn all about how to raise a child and you read 10 books on how to raise a child, yay, you got a lot of knowledge, right? A lot of knowledge isn't going to get your kids through. What you need is wisdom. You need to know how to apply that knowledge. It's the it's the ability to discern or to judge and to apply. So this is interesting that knowledge can exist without wisdom. It can exist without wisdom.

It's there on the internet. It can exist without wisdom. So one can be knowledgeable without being wise. And boy, I have run into a few people. I can even think back to when I was in college and thinking to myself, man, that professor is very knowledgeable. but as far as wisdom goes you know that no not so much knowledge is knowing how this is really really important knowledge is knowing how to use a car how to drive a car that's knowledge how to drive a car wisdom is knowing where to drive it and at what speed and drive it according to signs on the side of the road

that's wisdom, okay? You might know how to drive a car, but you might not have wisdom and probably get a ticket, you know, or in jail. So if you have knowledge and then you apply wisdom, you walk in wisdom, then it's going to result in what we call understanding. So you have an understanding and that follows wisdom. It's the taste of having walked in wisdom. It's understanding. We truly understand. And how often do we say, well, I don't understand. And then we walk rightly, we apply this knowledge in a correct way, and we say, aha, I get it. I get it. You probably have been there. Albert Einstein said, any fool can know, the point is to understand. That's a good quote, isn't it? Albert Einstein, kind of a bright fella, any fool can know. The point is to understand. And how do you go from knowing to understanding? Wisdom. Wisdom. Give you some examples. Maybe we can bring this down to earth and make it a little bit more understandable. If you're like me, I need examples to get some of this stuff. Okay, so here we are. Knowledge understands that a red light means stop.

Okay. I have that knowledge. I understand that. I'm a pretty bright guy. Wisdom puts the brakes on. And then it results in understanding. Ah, I get it. So if you're out of a red light and you don't have wisdom, you just might go right through it. But you will understand that you should have done that because you might get sideswiped by another car. So knowledge understand. that the light is red, wisdom puts the break on, and understanding is accumulated in the heart and the mind. Here's another one. Knowledge is knowing how the stock market works or how cryptocurrency works. I know some of you are into Bitcoin and Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche and a lot of these other forms of cryptocurrency out there. You might have knowledge about the stock market and the exchanges.

Wisdom is the balance of your portfolio. When to buy, when to sell. And understanding comes in a bear market. Another one, knowledge is knowing knowledge is knowing women don't like to talk about their age. Wisdom is, don't ask. Understanding is, you're going to have a nice evening. You know, like, you don't ask a, you don't ask a woman, guys. You don't ask a woman and,

you know, what do you weigh? Right? You don't do that. That's not wise. That's not wise. So knowledge is women don't like to talk about their weight. Wisdom is, don't ask them. The understanding is, you're going to have a nice evening. Okay. And by wisdom, the scripture says in Proverbs 243, by wisdom, a house is built, and by understanding it is established. Now, there's, there's all kinds of places where you can get wisdom when it comes to making a decision. You can, you can, you can, you can look on online for sure. You can look online for knowledge. You, you can go to the library and find a lot of knowledge. But we're talking about wisdom here. Where do you find wisdom? Well, I think you know what the answer is. Wisdom comes

from a person, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who is wisdom himself. And wisdom comes from the word of God. Wisdom comes from the sacred scriptures. It comes from the sacred tradition. The catechism is filled with wisdom, the saints, and the great brothers and sisters that went before us, who we call saints, they had a lot of wisdom. Those that were educated, those that were uneducated. They all had some tremendous wisdom. That's why I like to develop my posse and walk with my posse, the communion of saints that I walk with every day. I've got five of them, you know, and boy, they're filled with wisdom. I got St. Augustine and Mother Teresa, John Paul the second. I've got St. Joseph and I have St. Francis. That's my posse. And there's a lot of

of wisdom there. But the scriptures tell us what should be our attitude about wisdom and the value of wisdom in decision making. Proverbs two, and most of these are from Proverbs. Search for wisdom like hidden treasure. Are you doing that right now? Search for wisdom like hidden treasure. I think the idea here is accumulate wisdom. Go after it. By the way, I'm looking right now, I have in my left hand an insight journal. This is the latest. This is, this is a tool. Father Mike and I were working on this, Father Mike Schmitz, that is, Bible in a year. And we're realizing that people need a place to put down the wisdom and the gold in their life that they can pass on to the next generation. We put together an insight

journal, and that's where you put the gold. That's where you put the things that you find, that you're saying to yourself, I don't ever, ever want to forget that. And so check it out. I'll have a link in the show notes. Check it out an Insight Journal. We've got people right now, believe it or not, they're using Insight Journal for their future spouse. I know one young lady, she is not dating. I don't think she's even dating right now, but she wants to get married and she's creating

an Insight Journal and writing about wisdom and insight for a future spouse. that someday is going to read that journal. I have grandpas and grandmas who are putting together insight journals, filling it with wisdom, filling it with insights. And in 15 years from now, when their grandson turns 18, they're going to hand him that journal, that insight journal, and say, honey, I have been praying for you all these years. I have written down so many insights of wisdom for you.

And what a gift. Can you think, honestly, just for a moment, I know I'm going to get to the rest of this, but I got sidetracked here. Can you imagine what that would have been like if you could hold in your hands a journal that was kept by your grandmother for 15 years? And it was all with you in mind. Oh, wow. What a treasure. That's an insight journal.

So the Bible also tells us in Proverbs 8 that wisdom is far more valuable than rubies, and in Proverbs 20, wise words are more valuable than much gold and many rubies. Let me ask you, do you believe that? Do you really believe that wisdom is more valuable than gold? If you do, then we've got to start seeking wisdom. It says in Proverbs 23, buy truth and do not sell it. Buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. But the one that I want to draw your attention to is from James chapter 1 and verse 5.

James says, do you want wisdom? And I know you do. If you're like me, you and I are an awful lot alike. If you want wisdom, James says, ask for it. Pretty simple, isn't it? Ask God for it. And God will give you wisdom. And in situations that we find ourselves in right now, wow, we need it. We need it in spades. We really do. James goes on in chapter three, and he talks about the difference between godly wisdom and worldly wisdom. And he brings out some differences like he says that godly wisdom is pure. It doesn't have an ulterior motive. It's not manipulative. That's not the kind of wisdom we're looking for. It's peaceable. In other words, there's a right relationship between us and God and between us and other people. Wisdom is gentle, James says. And the man who is gentle

is the man who knows when it is wrong to apply the strict letter of the law. gentleness could be described as, and I love this description that I've kept in my Bible, sweet reasonableness. Isn't that good? Sweet reasonableness. The godly wisdom is reasonable. It's not stubborn. It listens to others.

It's full of mercy, good fruits, and it's without uncertainty. Wisdom doesn't waver. And it is without insincerity. In other words, you're not a hypocrite. A hypocrite was an actor in Greek, and wisdom doesn't act. It doesn't act. When I come back from the break, we'll take a little look here at do you live by principles or do you live by preferences as the basis of your decision-making?

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, we're Jackie and Bobby Angel with Ascension Presents, and we wrote a book. Yay! It's on discernment, which is figuring out the will of God in your life which can be an exciting and yet exhausting endeavor. It's called Pray Decide and Don't Worry, Five Steps to Discerning God's Will. And we wrote it with Father Mike Schmidt from Ascenton Presents. You might know. You may know that guy.

The book is concise, but there's lots of wisdom for any person that really wants to do God's will. And it's a journey trying to figure out what God wants for your life. So there's a lot of wisdom from things we've learned along the way. There's testimonies and parts of our stories to help you out. Really, like, this is a book I wish I had as a young adult. Like, this would have helped me a lot in my 20s. Discernment is a question we get asked all the time. Where is God calling me?

What am I called to? What vocation am I called to? How do I know if I'm supposed to take this job? How do I know this? So we wrote this book to help you along the way, to give five steps to discern whatever decision you're making. And hopefully to give that peace and that joy that will come from making that decision and the main goal is to help you grow closer to God along the

way. So maybe not you. Maybe someone in your life is wrestling with a really tough decision and you want to give them some kind of resource or encouragement. It's more if you've got a big decision period. Yeah. So go get your copy of Pray Decide and Don't worry. Go buy one for a friend, buy one for someone who's not your friend. Love your enemies. Buy them this book. Go to Ascensionpress.com and get your copy today. thanks for coming back my friend and sticking with me here we're talking today about decision making and making the right decision in order to make the right decision whether it's should I marry should I buy a house should I should I work here or there do I say for retirement do I put

the kids through this private school whatever it might be you need wisdom you need insight from God on how to make the right decisions. Now, one of the things that I could share with you that I think is really helpful in my decision making in life is paragraph 1768 of the catechism. It says, I love this. I'll put this in the show notes for you, so don't pull over on the side of the road yet. So listen to this. This is the difference between, I guess you would say preferences and principles. Are your decisions driven by principles, godly principles, or are your decisions driven by personal preferences, right?

So principles are moral and ethical actions, and there are thoughts that honor God. They don't change, but preferences. You know, you can fool with the preferences on your application, on your phone or a program, you know, on the computer. Preferences make decisions based on desires, likes, dislikes, but they might not be the right decision, not the wise decision. Principles or preferences, what do you do with your body, with your money, with your time?

If you stick to God's principles, he will give you the desires of your heart. That's what it says in Psalms, delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. So here we are with paragraph 1768 of the catechism. Get this. This is, this is just great. Strong feelings, it says, strong feelings are not decisive. Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the holiness of persons. They are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally good, when they contribute to a good action. Evil in the opposite case. The upright will orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to the good and to the beatitude. An evil will succumb to

disordered passions and exacerbates them. Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices. And so what the church is telling us there is that you cannot make decisions just based on feelings, just on passion. You can't. It has to be godly principles, which the word of God is filled with. The teachings of the church is filled with godly principles. It's what it says in wisdom, chapter 7, godly wisdom is not fleeting, but enduring. In every generation, she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God.

I think that's a pretty neat thing right there. Okay, so when we talk about making an important decision, I'll give you a few steps here that will help. We know that we cannot base our decisions based on preference or passion, but on principles. And the best thing that I could tell you is that whatever you are trying to decide, you want to go and grab your Bible and grab your catechism. And in the back of the catechism, there is a concordance on how the church in the catechism uses various scriptures.

So you can go back there, and it's by topic. And you can look up marriage, you can look up children, you can look up a number of topics that you might be interested in or that you're facing decisions that you're facing and go there and then just start to read some of those paragraphs and the scriptures that are cross-referenced. It's easy to do it. It's not difficult at all. You can do it. And what you're doing is you're kind of washing your decision maker inside. You're washing that with the Word of God. You're getting to know the principles of God rather than just going by preference. And this is going to all take place. This is all going to take place where in your heart.

The heart is the place of decision making. It is. It's the place of decision making. I didn't come up with that. The church teaches that. It says in paragraph 2563, the heart is the dwelling place where I am. You want to know where Jeff is? He's not over there. Not over there. I'm right here. It's the dwelling place where I am, where I live. According to the Semitic or the biblical expression, the heart is the place to which I withdraw. And I think this is the place. This is the secret place you go to with the Lord is in your heart. It goes on and says the heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others, only the spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. Get this. Underline this in your heart. The heart is the place of decision

deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter because as image of God we live in relation it is the place of covenant whoa that is amazing get that the place your heart where our covenant is is also the place that a decision is made hmm oh pardon me just a minute i'm just going to enjoy that for a second that's that's delicious stuff right there. That means, I'm listening to this with you, by the way, that means that my decisions in my heart come from a place of covenant. That's a covenant. That's faithfulness. That's where they come from. I'm tempted just to turn this off and enjoy this for a few minutes, but you get to do that here in the car. You can put You can put me on pause any time.

So God reveals his will to us primarily in three ways, by his spirit, by his word, and counsel. So if you're trying to make a decision right now in your life, you really need to seek God in his word in the catechism, learn about that topic and what is God's will in that topic. and then you have that time of prayer where you go away with the Lord in your heart, the place of decision in prayer. Don't be distracted. Don't try to make important decisions while you're watching the evening news or you're watching Fox or CNN or you're driving. Don't make these big decisions when you are distracted.

I would suggest that you go and take in a holy hour. A holy hour is where you can go to your. local Catholic church, and if they have adoration, you can go in there in the presence of God with your Bible, with your catechism, spend an hour and say, Lord, I need wisdom. That's what James said in chapter 1 and verse 5. I need wisdom. And the Lord will give you wisdom. It can come in the word. It can come in Mass in a homily. It can come in a billboard, actually. I mean, God can give you wisdom. Give you those little, cues that you need to go into the right, in the right direction. But at the heart of it,

pardon the pun, in the heart of it, I should say, decisions are an act of the will. And they are always influenced by the mind. Always. The decisions we make are reflections of the desires of our heart. And if your desire is to please God, then your decisions will reflect that. But again, do not go on preferences, but go on the principles of God's word. And if you don't know, ask. Before deciding on an attitude or action, pray for guidance, look for help. Ask for wisdom. God said to Solomon, as he talked to Solomon, he said, I'll give you anything you want to lead and guide and, you know, lead this nation.

And what did Solomon ask for? Solomon asked for wisdom. He said, give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people. And that is exactly what God gave him. And so we have these great books of wisdom. Proverbs is a great source for wisdom. Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiastes. And then we also have Job and Syrac.

All five of those are incredible storehouses of wisdom for you. So, oh, there's so much more. could talk to you about. I wish I had the time to do that. But I would say that in conclusion, that once you make that decision, which way to go, don't, don't veer from it. Don't be yes and no. But know the will of God make the decision, even if you're thinking, maybe this isn't the best for me financially, but it is the best decision for my family. I can tell you of a number of people who made very tough decisions about their job, but it was a very good decision for their marriage

or for their kids, their family. And that's the difference between building your house on the rock versus the sand. The one who builds his house on the rock is someone who hears the word of God and does it. The person who hears the word of God and doesn't do it is like building your house. on sand. It's going to collapse. Keep the saying castles for the beach. You build on the rock.

Well, I hope that helped out today. I was thinking about you earlier this week when I was in the car and I actually did pull over and I wrote down a few things because I thought, you know, maybe you'd like to hear this this week. Hey, give me a kind of a message back if you'd like to email me or you You can leave some comments on Apple or Google and rank the show. That always helps with our search engine. People are out there thinking, how do I make a good decision? Well, it might be your liking the show that ended up getting that show into their phone. So you and I can work together in that.

Again, if you want the show notes, text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word at 33777. seven get yourself an insight journal start to put the wisdom in there for yourself and for other people i love you my friend i think about you throughout the week and i pray for you and i ask you to pray for me in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit lord i lift up my friend right now to you and i ask you lord to move on their heart that they would have a desire for wisdom they would seek you with all their heart and then in that heart make the decision that decision which will be eternal, fruitful, and it will be edifying to their own lives and glorifying to you. I thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Love you. Have a good week.