Choices, they haunt us first thing in the morning. From what shampoo or soap to use, to what clothes to wear. Often times we need to make wrong hasty decisions that we can never take back and soon enough you find yourself in a pool of resentments. Swimming away, to fix everything.What was done, is done. I must admit that there were few decisions that I made and resented. OK may be there were more than basically a few...
Everyday I face decisions and a lot of them I never even imagined doing! But even if there were wrong ones, I find myself in a good position.
In my daily walk with my Creator, I have learned to not rely on my own understanding and to never EVER trust my self. Was that another choice? I think it was. I decided to write this note as early as this morning after watching the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy and Smallville, where they had to make choices.
A line in that episode drew a question mark in me that says, "Whatever makes you sleep at night...", when a patient was asked to make a choice.
Grey's Anatomy:
A death row patient wanted to do something good before he dies and decides to give his organ to a boy who badly needs it and is just waiting for some miracle organs to come. The doctors in Seattle Grace didn't want him to die in the hospital, so he decides to kill himself by banging his head exposed brain in his bed!!
Smallville:
Clark was led to choose whether to save mankind or his best friend Chloe who was possessed by Brainiac and was abducted by Doomsday. But ended up saving Chloe and mankind with the help of his 31st century friends from the Legion. Pretty cool.
So I tried asking myself, HOW DO I MAKE CHOICES? I run to God's Word.
We may not know if we came up with the right choice, we don't know what our choices will make up for us. We do not need to know God’s decreed will and how He is providentially bringing it about before we make a decision (Deut. 29:29).
Knowing our future is not our primary objective, and it's not even our job! Often I find myself considering my future before I make any decisions, maybe it does matter but often times for me I end up knowing that it really doesn't. Our destiny in not written in some stone in the future...we write it ourselves together with God. We have no idea what our future is but we know WHO holds it for us.
God is a gracious God who has provided everything we need in order to do what He wants us to do (2 Pet. 1:3). So what is there to worry about? Wrong decisions..yeah I made a lot but my God is SOVEREIGN!
If we make a decision based on biblical commands and principles alone we can fully trust that we are pleasing God in our decision and fully trust that He will providentially (by circumstances out of our control) change our choice if it is not within His decreed will (Ps. 119:30; Prov. 16:9).
And with that I end this note...
“The Bible must be our standard. Whenever we are confronted with a question about Christian practice, we must apply the teaching of the Bible. Sometimes the Bible will deal with it directly, and we must go by its direct teaching. Often the Bible will not deal with it directly, and then we must look for general principles to guide us. It does not matter what other people think. Their behavior is not a standard for us. But the Bible is a standard for us, and it is by the Bible that we must live” (J.C. Ryle, Walking with God).
