Praying before Thinking

We're probably all familiar with the saying "Think before you act!" While this is some sage-old advice, it doesn't quite tell a complete story. As sinful humans, even as we think and rationalize through our actions and what the consequences are, there is so much perversion and incorrectness in our thinking. I'm seeing this more and more in myself as I really subscribe to "cost benefit analysis" and weighing pro's and con's while thinking through my actions. Joab probably behaved in a similar way when he was considering murdering Abner; the pro's had to outweigh the con's for him to carry out the murder. However, we see in hindsight (and probably even prior to his action), that it was not aligned with God's will, even though he may have thought it to be correct. Rather than simply thinking through actions and assuming the output is the will of God, I need to work on praying more and listening for His will.

This is further established in Hebrews 3: "12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness."  We need to run from sin and continue coming before God rather than excluding Him from our decision processes and presuming, or even worse, ignoring His desires for us.