Let me begin by reading out this quote to us from the last edition of Leaderview by Brother Gboyega Adedeji. The quote says “the best way you as a person can predict the man or the woman you would become is by making certain choices today that will determine an expected or a desirable outcome in the future.”
As we grow in life, there are certain times we would have to make certain choices, and our decisions to stick with a particular choice would either make or mar us. This is why it is of great necessity and importance to examine our choices and weigh them before we make our decisions because at the time of making them, those choices may be insignificant. They may even appear harmless. For example, if they say “smokers are liable to die young.” Someone may say “Well two or three sticks of cigarette don’t appear excessive and so, they continue smoking.”
Starting out, those two or three sticks may not readily do the damage to your health, however, they are setting in motion a series of events and activities which may shape your life. The same thing is applicable to the choices that we make daily in our lives, they usually set in motion a series of events and activities which may not appear readily visible to us right now, but goes to wait for our generations even unborn. Let me show us about one or two Scriptures to corroborate this assertion.
In the giving of the commandments, God said to the children of Israel in Exodus 20:5-6 that “you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” God said he visits the sin of the fathers upon their children. But it isn’t’ the children that sinned really, but the decisions of their fathers to sin goes ahead to wait for their children.
But God has changed this narrative. We are in a time when if such children would cling to the Lord and cry for mercy, the sins of their fathers and forefathers would not have any consequences on them. In the book of Jeremiah 31:29-30, note what the Scripture says.
“In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.”
Also, in Romans 5:17-19 the Bible made this very clear to us how one man’s offense brought everyone into trouble and how another man made another choice that brought everyone out of the same trouble. Through Adam’s disobedience, sin came to every mankind. Why? Because every mankind was in Adam’s loins. We weren’t there when he ate the fruit with his wife Eve, but because the whole of mankind was sourced in Adam, we became partaker of the choice that he made.
17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
Our choices are powerful and most times, they go beyond us. Whatever we choose to do or not do today goes a long way in our life and this is why we must be very careful about the choices we make in life.
HOW TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES
Let Your Choices Be Inspired By God
Anything that God inspires are usually devoid of negative consequences. There is virtually no one who has made certain choice or choices based on God’s leading, who come back to regret ever making those choices. No one can follow God and miss. The reason is because God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5 tells us “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” If God is light, it means the only thing that He can give always and all the time is LIGHT. So, if your choices are inspired by Him, you can be rest assured that it is a good one.
Also, the Bible makes it clear that every good gifts and perfect gifts comes from Him, the Father of light in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning (James 1:17). Based on these facts, God cannot mislead a man. If God is the type that misleads a man, then I know Abraham wouldn’t have been that faithful in following Him. God said in Isaiah 51:1-2, He says:
“Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,
You who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father,
And to Sarah who bore you;
For I called him alone,
And blessed him and increased him.”
Abraham was a man who made a choice to follow God when He called him. He could have decided to remain in his father’s house and country and continued with the service of their moon god. But he stepped out, as God instructed him and today, the rest is history. Choices that emanates from God leads to a prosperous life and increase and so, let the choices you make in life be inspired by God.
Listen to Podcast: CHOICES: How Our Decisions Make Or Mar Us
Don’t Make Circumstantial Choices
Circumstantial choices are those we make based on our present hour reality. Another name you can call it is EMOTIONAL CHOICES. The danger of circumstantial choices is that it blocks our reasoning faculty, it does not give us so much room to think through on the type of choice we are about to make. Because we just want to get out of that unpalatable situation fast and forget about it, we make certain choices which at the end of the day, we may never fully recover from. And I want us to read the story of Esau and Jacob once again to examine what circumstantial choices really look like. Genesis 25:29-34, the Bible says:
“Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. 31 But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” 32 And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” 33 Then Jacob said, ]“Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”
Esau sold his birthright because he was hungry, a temporary situation. He made that choice not thinking about his future. The Bible says afterwards, when it was time to inherit the blessing, he could not access it, because there was nothing to access anymore. In Hebrews 12:16-17, the Bible says he sort to regain his birthright back with tears when he needed it the most, when it was time for the blessing to be operational.
“lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
What about Sarah? She told her husband to go sleep with her handmaid so that she could have a child for him. Sarah had been barren for so long, but there was a promise of God already that she is going to give birth to a child of promise. And because she allowed her emotions to take her over, she pushed Abraham to Hagar, and the consequences of that action is still with us today (Genesis 21:8-21). Think about Joseph for instance. He could have chosen to sleep with Potiphar’s wife and become one of the biggest boys in town. He was in an unpalatable situation at the time, a slave in a foreign land.
But he said something very profound in Genesis 39:9 in the midst of his circumstances. He told Potiphar’s wife, “how can I possibly do this thing and sinned against God?” This story simply shows us that we should think through the choices we make whenever we are faced with situations that seems not so much palatable.
Let Your Choices Puts You On God’s Side Always
Just like Joseph, never make choices that would pitch you against God. Joshua admonished the children of Israel in Joshua 24:14-15. It says:
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.”
Anyone who is not on the side of God is definitely on the side of the devil, and the devil does not have anything good to offer anyone.
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
