Making Choices

 

The story is told about a man who had his wife take the wheel of their motor home while he went to the back for a nap. He awoke to see his wife getting something out of the refrigerator while the motor home was still moving. “Who’s driving!?” he exclaimed. “Oh, don’t worry. I put it on autopilot,” she replied just as they crashed. What’s worse is when we put our life in cruise control and step away from the driver’s seat. We’re accountable for every action and word. We cannot blame others or circumstances for our choices.

One of the greatest abilities God has given humanity is the power of choice. Every day a person makes hundreds of choices, both small and large. There are small choices like what clothes we will wear to work, to bigger choices like where we are going to actually work. Let’s face it – a look at a person’s life reveals a summary of the choices that they have made. Plain and simple, you and I are the product of choices we have been making our entire life, both good and bad. I’ve never run into a person who has never made a bad decision in their life. Everyone has some particular choice that they regret, either from something they said or something they wished they hadn’t done. So, it almost goes without saying that every person on the planet could use a great deal of help when it comes to the decision-making process.

Usually when a person has a big decision to make, they will meditate on it, roll it over and over in their mind, weighing the positive and negative consequences of the potential outcome. A wise person will usually talk it over with various friends and family members to get a good sense of feedback to help him make the right call. To make better choices, those things are absolutely necessary and should not be overlooked.

[James 1:5-8] The main step in the process of good decision making is usually overlooked by the majority of the populace. That step is asking god for help, and for the wisdom to make the best possible choice. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways.”

The message is easy to comprehend; if you want wisdom to make better choices in life, confidently ask God for that wisdom. Admit that you have a need; admit to God that you need help and then talk to our Almighty Heavenly Father about what you need. The Word of God says that He will give that wisdom to those who ask for it, but we first have to ask! The road to better decision making is paved in prayer to God who wants us to choose and serve and live for Him. Now that’s a good decision!

(Deuteronomy 30:19-20) “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice…” How often do I wish that I could turn back the clock, not to live longer but to make better choices. Things I struggle with today are a result of poor choices I made yesterday. But I did choose to obey the gospel. All my sins were erased, but the choices were not finished. How I have wished that when I came up out of the water of baptism, my second birth, God had made me a robot incapable of making poor choices. But God has set life and death, blessings and curses before me, before you, and He allows us to make our choices every day, every hour, every minute; to follow Him or go our own way. Choose.