Psalm 25:12 The Living Bible
“Where is the man who fears the Lord? God will teach him how to choose the best.”
Every choice you make leads you towards a destination.
Have you ever watched an interactive film or TV show? It will let you choose how a character will respond to a challenge they are confronted with. The ultimate end of the story is determined by the choices you made for the character.
How often do we want to do this in real life? Do you wish you could make choices for your kids, your co-workers or your neighbors? The problem is that we don’t always know where those choices will lead. What seems like a good idea in the moment, could turn out to be bad for them later. We don’t know the future. Also, we are selfish and would make choices for them based on how it would affect us.
The only person you get to make choices for, is you. As a matter of fact, your current life situation is the result of the choices you have made up to this point. If you are not living the life you wanted, the good news is that your story is not over and you can begin making the choices that will lead you to the abundant life God wants for you. But your priorities have to be in order.
You see, choices and priorities always go together.
Your choices don’t determine your priorities…they reveal them.
We like to talk about having the right priorities, but our choices reveal the truth.
New Year’s Resolution
Just this past week, how many of us set our priorities?
“This year I’m going to lose that extra weight,
save some money
and get serious with God”?
But here’s the reality. If you choose Krispy Kreme over a salad, losing weight is not your priority. If you choose a new car over keeping the one that’s paid off, saving money is not your priority. And if you choose watching TV over reading the Bible, then having a serious relationship with God is not your priority.
We always choose the option we believe has the highest priority.
If some bad choices have led you to a place you didn’t want to go, you’re not alone. Mankind has been making bad choices from the very beginning. Eve chose to listen to satan, and Adam chose to listen to Eve. Cain chose to allow jealousy and anger to take over and he killed his brother Abel.
Choices have consequences and we have to deal with those consequences before we can repair the damage of a wrong choice.
If you have wronged someone, you can’t just pray for forgiveness and move on. You have to ask that person to forgive you.
I’m diabetic and if I choose to eat sugary food too often, it will cause major problems with my health. I can’t eat bad for several months and then choose to eat one salad and expect my blood sugar to magically be normal. It wasn’t just one meal that got me into trouble and it won’t just be one meal that gets me out.
You cannot make a series of bad choices that result in significant problems and then make one good choice and expect all the consequences of those bad choices to go away.
You did not get into trouble through one bad choice; you got into trouble through a series of bad choices. If you really want your life to change for the better, you will need to make one good choice after another, over a period of time, just as consistently as you made the negative choices that produced negative results.
The way to overcome the results of a series of bad choices is through a series of good choices.
Every time you are presented with a temptation you have a choice. You can give in or you can resist. The choice may be seemingly insignificant, but over time, what we choose to do becomes a habit. And the habits you form will determine the direction of your life.
How do we make good choices?
Your choices must be based on truth.
Truth doesn’t change just because your situation changes.
Your choices shouldn’t be based on how you feel in the moment.
The best illustration of this is in the book of Joshua in chapter 24. It contains the famous words:
“Choose you this day who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Israel had come into the promised land and this chapter is dedicated to reminding them of the truth, that God had taken care of them with lots of miracles.
JOSHUA 24 “2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. 4 To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. 5 Also I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out.
6 ‘Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. 7 So they cried out to the Lord; and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time. 8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. 10 But I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand. 11 Then you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of Jericho fought against you—also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I delivered them into your hand. 12 I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword or with your bow.
13 I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’
That is a very powerful reminder of what God had done for them. And it should have been all they needed to choose to serve God. But God still needed to remind them because people like to make choices based on their current situation. Their current situation was that some of them had already chosen to begin serving the false gods of the land they lived in.
I know a lot of people struggle with making the right choices, so here’s the Kingdom key that will unlock some wisdom.
Set your priorities in the right order and the right choice will be clear.
Remember: priorities and choices always go together…and having the right priorities, will make the right choices clear.
Joshua had his priorities in order and made his choice based on the truth of what God had done:
Joshua 24 “14 Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Have you said that you want to serve The Lord, but have been making a series of choices that show it’s not been a priority?
Maybe it’s time to stop focusing on your choices and start focusing on your priorities. It’s time to put first things first.
Jesus taught us to put our spiritual needs first.
Matthew 6:33. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Don’t spend your time and energy mourning all the bad decisions you have made; just start making good ones based on the right priorities found in the truth of God’s word.
Invite God to get involved, trust in His truth, make one good choice after another, and you will start to see things turn around for you.
Look at David’s prayer in Psalm 25:4-12
“4 Show me the path where I should go, O Lord; point out the right road for me to walk. 5 Lead me; teach me; for you are the God who gives me salvation. I have no hope except in you.
6-7 Overlook my youthful sins, O Lord! Look at me instead through eyes of mercy and forgiveness, through eyes of everlasting love and kindness.”
You cannot do anything about the sins and choices of your past…all of that is behind you, but you can do a great deal about what lies ahead of you.
God is a redeemer, and He will always give you another chance if you turn to Him for direction.
David continues “8 The Lord is good and glad to teach the proper path to all who go astray; 9 he will teach the ways that are right and best to those who humbly turn to him. 10 And when we obey him, every path he guides us on is fragrant with his loving-kindness and his truth. 11 But Lord, my sins! How many they are. Oh, pardon them for the honor of your name.
David lays out how God will teach us what we should do if we turn to Him and obey Him. But as he recalled God’s goodness, it reminded him of how sinful was. It made him stop and ask forgiveness.
Are you ready to ask forgiveness for the mistakes you’ve made trying to make life’s choices on your own?
12 Where is the man who fears the Lord? God will teach him how to choose the best.”
If you will make God your priority, He will teach you how to make the best choices to live the abundant life He wants for you.
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