Every day we make choices, whether to get up or stay in bed, what shirt to wear and what to have for breakfast. We make these choices all the time and most times it doesn’t take too much time, well some ladies take a while to choose which clothes to wear, but that is the exception.
Sometimes a seemingly simple choice may have long reaching consequences. Having the extra beer, deciding to drive home under the influence of drink and the consequence could be an accident with serious consequences! If a bit more time was taken over the initial choice a lot of pain and suffering could have been avoided.
There are a lot of serious choices to be made: what type of career to pursue, or who to marry and even more importantly, will I choose to follow Christ? All of these have a huge influence on your life and need to be taken seriously, but, the last choice will have an influence not only on the first two choices but also will influence your eternal life!
So then, how do we make our choices? Obviously the basic choices during the course of the day are not being considered at the moment, but rather the major choices for our lives. Prayer must start any choice, we see this in Christ’s example, He prayed before every major event or when He had a choice to make. It also helps to make a choice before you need to make the choice so that when the time comes the decision is already made. As an example, if we decide to attend ALL meetings at the church, then, when Sunday arrives you do not need to decide whether to go or not, you will just go, no matter the weather or even if you feel a bit poorly. It makes it so much easier, because the choice was made long ago.
Some believe that they will ‘sit on the fence’ and not choose. They won’t follow God, but they won’t follow Satan either. Well that won’t work, because if you do NOT choose God then you HAVE chosen Satan! If you are not for God you ARE against Him!
Matt 12:30
30 "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. NIV
People do not realise the seriousness of some of the choices that they make. We need to be able to see further ahead than the immediate future, we need to see past our own death! Wisdom is a vital characteristic in decision making and ‘the fear of God, is the beginning of wisdom.’(Prov 9:10)
So how much thought have you put into your decision making? Have you tried to avoid the more serious ones thinking that you will be able to slip through the ‘cracks’? How will you feel when you a staring at the consequence of your choice?