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As you read and study what has been written here, do not just blindly accept it. Please check the Scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you His truth. The Scriptures quoted here are from the King James’ version with the words of Jesus in red.

July 2, 2005

The word "choice" can have two different meanings depending upon how it is used. One of those is to identify something as "the best or most preferable part or, of special excellence" thereby describing its quality. The other meaning refers to selecting between available options. It should be obvious from the title of this booklet that we are speaking of "selecting" rather than describing quality.

God has given us the ability to make our own choices. Why he has done that is a mystery, but we do have the choice to decide things for our self. That even includes whether or not we will accept the free gift of salvation His son, Jesus, purchased for us.

We make choices every minute of the day. Some of the choices or decisions are conscious ones that we have thought, and prayed, about before we make them. Most other times, however, we are not even aware we have made a choice because it was an automatic response to an idea, a thought, or a circumstance. When we smile at something another has said, we have chosen to smile rather than frown without even thinking about the choice. And, sometimes we make no choice at all, which is actually making a choice.

Our choices decide our future. Many of them will alter our physical health, our economic health, or our reputation. Others will affect our emotional health. Most of the choices we make, however, will have a very profound impact on our spiritual well being. And, very often, the choices we make will have an effect on more than one of these areas of our life. Many times a single bad choice can mushroom into a long series of bad choices causing immense damage to all of these areas of our being.

The author is familiar with the case of a young woman who experienced first hand this cascading of bad choices into severe hurt and loss. She is a 20-year-old who chose to enter an establishment serving alcohol with her friends for a night of partying and drinking. Her wrong choice was to disregard the law which forbids her presence in such an establishment.

Later, she and her friends, left there with her driving the car belonging to another person. She then chose to drive through a stoplight without stopping and hit a man on a bicycle, knocking him down. At the urging of her friends, she made another bad choice by driving away from the accident scene. A witness to the accident reported it to the police who were able to apprehend the young woman a short time later.

These bad choices all began with the initial choice to go partying and drinking with her friends. Her experience that night has brought the following harm to her person:

This is quite a serious set of consequences resulting from the wrong decision to party with alcohol while underage.

The memories of these experiences will remain with her for the rest of her life. Some of them may become the source of nightmares for a long time to come. They may even result in her experiencing periods of deep despair.

She may be burdened by the debt for many years from the attorney expenses and court costs. If she loses her LPN license, it probably will take her even longer to pay off this debt due to the possibility of having to work at lower paying jobs.

Proverb, Chapter 4, verses 20 through 22 describes for us the secret of good health. (My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh)

Our physical body is affected greatly by the foods we eat. It is also affected by the amount of our physical activity. Eating the proper foods, in reasonable amounts and being physically active will help to prevent sickness and decay in our bodies.

The amount we exercise will affect the strength of our muscles but that is not the only benefit of exercise. It also provides increased blood flow throughout the body. This increase of blood flow helps eliminate detrimental wastes through the lungs, kidneys and sweat glands. It also clears our brain of foggy thinking.

We will often experience a reduction in the stress pressures created by the circumstances around ourselves after exercising.

How we choose to react to circumstances around us will have an effect on all areas of our life. Making the wrong choice can bring about physical harm to our body. It could cost money for fines or to repair property damage and possibly a jail sentence if we choose to become violent. It might also bring feelings of guilt or depression from that wrong choice. A ruined or damaged reputation which might be difficult to repair is also the possible result of a wrong choice. Choosing to react inappropriately to the circumstances around us will also impact our spiritual well being. It will create, among other things, the need to make a choice about repenting the inappropriate behavior.

The physical activities we choose can also have a serious impact upon our body. Among these are contact or dangerous sports, being aggressive around other people, and using drugs or alcohol. Our choice of occupation can also present opportunities for harm to our body.

Many jobs require working in hazardous surroundings. Often employers do not provide proper safety training for working around dangerous equipment. Lack of rest or working while physically exhausted can impair our ability to function in a safe manner.

Our reputation is based upon our past behavior. It is something we build over time by how we have reacted to the circumstances around ourselves. Some of the factors that determine our reputation are based upon the following actions. Do we tell the truth or lie? Do we honor our word or back out of promises we make? Are we respectful of the property of others or careless with it? Are we helpful or a hindrance when interacting with others?

A good reputation can be destroyed with just one bad choice. It may be nearly impossible to repair the damage done by that single wrong choice. Proverb 18:19 says, "A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle."

Proverbs 6:6-9, tells us we are to work to provide for our economic needs. ( Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.)

The state of our economic health is primarily controlled by how much money we make and how we spend or save it. Other factors, such as expensive unforeseen expenses, will also have an effect on our economic health.

For most of us, our income is determined by the pay or wage we receive from employment. And the type of employment is usually determined by our level of education. While getting an education, we make choices in deciding the type of classes to take in school. Choices are also made when deciding whether or not to continue into college level classes. These decisions have a direct effect in preparing us for the type of job we become qualified for and the amount of pay we will receive.

One of the most important tools for ensuring a healthy financial condition is a good budget. Of course we must choose to be faithful in following that budget for it to be of help. Impulse buying, a choice often made without realizing it, can rapidly put us in debt.

Saving for the future unexpected emergency expenses is a choice we should make to protect our economic health. Another choice we should make early is the planning for our retirement. Are we saving enough money to support the lifestyle we want to enjoy during our retirement years?

We who are Christians have been given a "sound mind" according to 1 Timothy 1:7, (For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.)

Our emotional health is determined, to a great extent, by how we respond to the circumstances around us. If we choose to react in a positive manner, it often will help us maintain a healthy mental attitude about the situation.

Often, many of us choose to react negatively based upon our assumption of the intent of what another has said or done. Even more important is our tendency to react negatively to what we assume others are thinking about us. Usually it is our own self-doubt, and feelings of inferiority at work rather than what other people might be thinking about us. When we choose to accept these assumptions, we open the door for more feelings of self-doubt, rejection and inferiority to enter our thinking.

Associated with assuming what others think of us and the self-doubt is the tendency to speak negatively about our selves. All too often the choice is made to say we can’t do this or that we aren’t able to understand it. Thinking and speaking these negative thoughts only reinforces the poor self-image we have created for ourselves. When we speak these negative thoughts, we are actually speaking out self-fulfilling prophecies. As we hear ourselves say these things, we then begin to believe what we hear.

We often let these two influences establish our identity of who we are rather than scripture. This will have a negative impact not only our emotional health but also our spiritual health.

4And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. ⁵For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. ⁶As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: ⁷Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. ⁸Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. ⁹For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. ¹⁰And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: (Colossians 2:4 - 10)

5And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, ⁶And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.(Revelation 1:5 & 6)

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. ²Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: ³Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; ⁴Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; ⁵Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1 - 5)

When we do that, we are building ourselves up in the faith, and not surrendering to the will of the enemy.

As Christians, the choices we make should be in agreement with Scripture and not after the lusts of our flesh. (Galatians 5:16, This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.)

The most important choice we can ever make in our life is whether or not we will accept the gift of salvation offered by our Lord Jesus through His death and resurrection. Choosing to accept salvation and become a disciple of Jesus will determine our future both here on earth and later in heaven.

We constantly fall short of perfection in living the "Christ Centered Life" because of the choices we make. This creates conditions where we must make additional choices to ask for forgiveness and to not repeat that again.

Forgiving ourselves and others is very often a difficult thing to do. We want revenge for the injustice we feel we have suffered. The Bible says that we are not to take revenge as that is God’s and not ours. Romans 12:19 says, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

We often cannot control the circumstances we find ourselves in. The only thing which we can control, however, is how we react to those circumstances. I was in my mid-forties before that truth was made clear to me, but what a life changing revelation that was. While I still experienced disappointment, I was no longer frustrated when things went differently than I had expected.

Marsha Burns is a woman God uses to bring words of encouragement to the community of faith. She posted the following message on her web site May 11, 2005.

What we choose to watch, listen to, read or think about will influence our attitudes and behavior. Listening to, and repeating, gossip has been something many Christians have been guilty of since the beginning of time. The telephone has made this even more of a problem but today’s technologies of TV, Movies/DVD’s and the internet provide greater opportunity for influencing our lives in inappropriate ways.

All of these communication vehicles are marvelous media for entertainment, education and contacting others. But they can often convey to us half-truths and worse yet, pornography. Unfortunately, the enemy of our soul has made use of these forms of media to attack us. It is for this reason we need to make wise choices in what we watch, listen to, read, or think about.

Among the many choices Scripture councils us to make are these:

God has given us the ability to choose how we live our life. Every choice we make will affect our future. There are rewards for making wise choices and consequences for choosing the foolish. Some wrong choices only create an inconvenience for you which can easily be repaired. Other choices are far reaching and cannot ever be reversed.

We are making choices every minute of every day. Most of these choices are made without even thinking about them. They are automatic responses to the circumstances around us. All of these choices will have an effect on our future.

Choosing to become a disciple of Jesus Christ is the single most important choice we will ever make. As a disciple, we need to choose to spend time reading the Scriptures and being in communion with the Lord. As we do this, we will begin to understand the character of God that we might present our self as a living sacrifice.

Once we have chosen to become a disciple we still must make choices every moment about what we will allow our eyes to view, our ears to hear, our mouth to utter, and our mind to dwell upon. Each of these represents an avenue to either enhance or hinder our relationship with Jesus and our future. What we choose to allow into our mind through our eyes and ears and out our mouth is constantly before us to make choices about. Our future will be determined by these choices.

What we speak often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We must be careful to speak what God says about us rather than the lies the enemy has planted in our mind.

Making wise choices is not something that just happens, it requires effort on our part. We need to be consciously aware of the decisions we make so that we do not select poor options for our lives. We all need help to do that and I suggest the following prayer.

Father, in Jesus Name and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I ask for each choice I make to be in agreement with Your Word. Help me, I pray, to become totally addicted to the things of Your Holy Spirit and not after the things of this world. Amen.