The Power in Choices
Today you will be confronted with a number of decisions, a number of choices. Some big, others small. When you were getting dressed this morning you decided what to wear. For breakfast, is it cornflakes with low fat milk and fruit, or a less healthy option, a day-old donut and an energy drink on the way to school or work? Throughout the day you will need to decide which tasks to do today and which to postpone until another day. While those are often important decisions, they are also sometimes done without too much thought, many with little or no impact on your future. There is great power in your choices.
Other decisions though, are not quite as easy, and the choices we make quite possibly will have long-term consequences, sometimes being a choice between right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice. Not only does choosing right over wrong, good over evil, justice over injustice please God, it also almost always comes at a cost. It might cost you your job, it might cost you a friendship, it might cost you money, it might cost you in status, it might cost you that big new client, it might cost you that promotion you’ve been seeking, or it might not be any of those things, but whatever it is, it will likely come at a cost. Let’s be honest though, in the long run, not doing the right thing ultimately ends up costing you more. You’ve heard the saying: the cover up is usually worse than the crime.
So, this might be good time to ask – regardless of the “importance” of the decisions you face, are you first seeking God’s wisdom and counsel before making those decisions? Read Proverbs 3:1-2, 5-6, 13-18; James 1:5.
But regardless the cost, we must always do what is right, not right in the eyes of the world, but rather, what is right in the eyes of God. We read this in Psalm 34:14 – “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” This next verse makes it even more clear how God views knowing what to do but failing to do it – “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17).
The apostle Paul, in speaking to his younger colleague Timothy about choosing good (things of God) over evil (things of the world), says this – “But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness” Notice this verse seems to imply that it is not enough to simply flee from evil, but that we must then follow after what is contrary to that from which we flee.
I recently saw this quote: “Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same thing.”
So often the greatest power we have in life are our choices. Today, I ask you, and I ask myself – How are you using that power? Are you pursuing God over culture, godliness over popularity, right over wrong, good over evil, justice over injustice? When you stand at the decision-making crossroads, which path will you choose?
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