We all need help making choices. The best help I know is found in God.
Deuteronomy 30:19 tells us, “choose life that both you and your descendants may live.”
Joshua 24:15 says, “choose for yourselves this day who you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
Adam and Eve had a choice. Noah had a choice. Zacharias had a choice and Paul had a choice.
Don’t let evil convince you that you don’t have the power to choose. God gave us power to choose.
Has anyone ever made a bad choice? I know I sure have, quite a few in fact. All throughout history, there are accounts of bad decisions.
- Sam Phillips sold the small recording company called Sun Records in1955 for $35,000. It included an inclusive contract with Elvis Presley. He unknowingly forfeited millions of dollars in royalties.
- Tom Selleck turned down the lead role for Indiana Jones.
- A thief in America tried to steal two live lobsters, and he decided to stick him down his pants.
All bad decisions. The key to making wise decisions is listening to God.
In the wise words from Solomon in Proverbs 2, if you want better insight and discernment, learn the importance for reverence for the Lord and of trusting Him. He shows how to distinguish right from wrong and hoe to find the right decision.
If you want to make better decision decisions, listen to God.
There are some practical ways I’ve found to test a decision.
- The Test: does it line up with the Word of God?
In life, you have to decide what’s going to be the thing you base your life on – what’s going to be your ultimate authority for what you do. You either base your decisions on God’s Word or on what society values.
If you base your life on what the popular opinion of the day is. Things are constantly changing. There is no solid foundation for society is doing at any given time, it’s always on the move.
On the other hand if you face your life on God’s Word, the truth never changes. Truth I’d always truth. If God says something was wrong 5,000 years ago, or today it is still wrong today. I don’t care what the popular opinion poll says. I don’t care about political correctness says, I don’t really care what is pushed on us from the main stream media. If God says it’s wrong it’s wrong. We have a choice to build our life on shaky constantly changing foundation or we can build our life on what God says which never changes and gives us a solid foundation while everything else is up in the air.
If we reject, disobey, or ignore God’s principles we are the ones who get hurt.
The oldest temptation in the book is to doubt God’s Word. Whenever we find something in the Bible we don’t like, think it’s restrictive, outdated, or old-fashioned we start to doubt God. “Did God really say, did God really mean.” Anytime we begin to question the Bible we fall into the oldest trap in the world. It’s Satan’s original temptation, the one he used on Adam and Eve.
So when making a decision the first test is, what does God say about it in His Word.
2. The integrity test: Would I want everyone to know about this decision I am making?
If you were making a decision and you worry about what others will think about it then it’s probably a good indication that it’s not the right decision to make. Bad decision is always lead to secrets, and those kind of secrets will lead to pain in our lives.
Proverbs 10:9 tells us “The man of integrity walks securely but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.”
Noticed it doesn’t say might be found out or even if there is a high probability of being found out. It says you will be found out..
When making decisions we have to have integrity.
We’ve all been there. We’re about to make a bad choice we know is wrong and it’s a choice we shouldn’t make, but think no one will find out. I’m we make that decision and start thinking someone’s going to find out and feel the fear that comes from that. That’s when we know we’ve violated the integrity test.
It always helps me to remember Luke 8:17, “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, and anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.”
The test of integrity is that your public life and your private life match. What’s in your heart and what’s in your life are the same thing. The truth is when it comes to integrity, even if you fool everyone else, you can’t fool yourself or God. If you violate your conscious, you have to pay for that.
James 4:17 says, “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to Him it is sin.”
There are times I have thought, “I know I’m about to do something wrong, and it has entered my brain, “Even though it’s wrong I’ll do it and God will forgive me.”
The problem with that is God isn’t stupid. If we think we can go ahead and do something that He says is wrong and there won’t be any consequences, we are fooling ourselves. That’s the reason God doesn’t want us to make that decision. There are consequences to every decision we make, and every bad decision always leaves scars.
The Bible says we reap what we sow.
That’s how it is in life. The truth of God does forgive us for all the wrong things we do. But that forgiveness doesn’t free us from the pain and consequences that come from our bad decisions.
When we think about things that we know are wrong, it’s easier than the gray areas. How do you decide what those gray areas are. When in doubt, it’s a violation of the integrity test.
3. The improvement test:
Will this decision make me a better person?
1 Corinthians 10:23 tells us, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for Mr, but not all things build up.”
Paul is saying here that some things are not necessarily wrong they are just not necessary. They’re not essential. It’s not a case of good or bad but rather a matter between what’s good and what’s the best. Many choices we make in life are not a case of good versus evil. Most of us don’t get up in the morning and say I will read my Bible or I will become an international terrorist.
The issue is what’s really best for our life. A lot of things are not necessary, they are morally neutral, but they are not necessary. We need to have a higher standard and ask what am I doing to make myself a better person. that’s the improvement test
Many activities in life are morally neutral. They are not right or wrong. It’s just that they are not helpful. They are unnecessary. The question isn’t, is there anything wrong with it? The question is, is it making me a better person?
4. The independence test:
Could it become addicting to me or could it begin to control or dominate my life?
No matter how appealing something is or how cool it seems or how much fun you’ll have -if it starts to dominate your life or control it it’s a bad decision. No matter how popular or something is, no matter how good something is or someone else if it dominates our life, it becomes addictive to us.
Don’t let anything on earth dominate your life.
This is important because whatever dominates your life becomes your God. The first commandment is “You will have no other God before Me.” God knew how easy it is to become addicted to our idols. We think idols are those little stone statues that people put on the shelf and worship. We have idols today. There are a lot of things we can become addicted to. Work, sex, money, or even the Internet can become idols.
Psychologist Stanton Peele named over 2000 classified addictions. But we can become addicted to almost anything. Soda, chocolate, anything that takes over our life.
Ask yourself “What do I think about most? What is it when you’re alone, when you’re relaxed, and find yourself thinking about it again and again? It’s a hard thing to admit, the things that dominate our lives. It’s hard to be honest with ourselves. Are you going to let that control your life?
Only Jesus should have that kind of place in our lives. He’s the only one worthy of that place in our lives. Anything else we put in that place will eventually dominate, control, and ruin our lives.
5. The influence test:
Will my choice harm other people?
One of the biggest mistakes in our life is we forget how much our actions will influence and effect other people every day. We are tempted to make decisions that may be the best thing for us that could have devastating effect on the people around us. We need to ask ourselves will it harm other people? Will it be a stumbling block?
Culture is good at causing us to only think about ourselves -what we need, or what we desire, no one else matters. the truth of it is God expects us to think more about this ourselves. The Bible says one day we will have to stand before God and give Him account on how our decisions affected others. God takes this very seriously.
Romans 14:12-13 says, “So then each one of us will give account of Himself to God. Try to live in such a way that you will never make another stumble by letting him see you doing something he thinks is wrong.
I remember one time I seen some people from church at a birthday party at a bar, I had a soda in front of me, and I immediately thought, “I bet they think Im drinking alcohol. Since then I have not walked into a bar for any reason. I was not in the right by choosing to go to a party at a bar. I could have went to the person’s house and visited them. I may have caused them to stumble.
Whether we like it or not, people are watching. There is no such thing, as it will only affect me. Everything we do has an effect on others either directly or indirectly.
The influence question is whether what I am doing, going to hurt someone else. We should be interested in how we live because we are influencing other people. People are watching, whether we like it or not. We can’t just live our lives where we want to. We have to be aware of our effects on other people. We bear the burden of being considerate of the doubt and fears of others.
Mature people limit their freedom for the benefit of others. Immature people don’t. In situations where there are gray areas we have to ask ourselves. Will it affect others.
6. The investment test:
Is it the best use of my life or time?
Ephesians 5:15-17 tells us to be careful how we live. Don’t live like those who are not wise. Live wisely. Because we are living in evil times. Don’t be foolish with your lives. Learn what God wants you to do.
If you want your life account, if you want to make the best of your life, if you want to make an impact, you’ve got to do one thing. You’ve got to control your time. Your time is your life.
Every one of us has been given the same amount of time each week -168 hours. Time is the one thing in life we cannot get more of. We can get more money, or possessions, but we only have a certain amount of time and once we waste it, we can’t get it back.If you waste you time p, you waste your life. Ask yourself is this the best use of my time.
We need to make decisions with a purpose. If not, you don’t have a basis for your decisions.
Affect people figure out what is essential in life and what’s trivial in my or they spend more of their time doing their essential things and less time doing the trivial things. We can’t eliminate all the trivia in our lives, but we can reduce it. It sounds easy, but it isn’t. Too often it is difficult to choose between what’s best for our lives and what’s easiest for our lives. It’s not an easy thing to choose.
When we’re tired, then we don’t want to do the best thing. We want to do what’s easy. We don’t want to do what’s right, we want to do what’s comfortable. That’s why if we’re going to make something of our lives we have to learn to get some rest. If we’re not rested, we’re tired, and if we’re tired, we do not have the mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual ability to say, “I’m going to do the right thing instead of the easiest.
Don’t go through life just existing, coping, or getting by. We were not put on this just to get by. God made us for a purpose. And it starts by asking the question is this the best use of my life?
From Pity to Praise 