How do we make Good choices?

Choices have significant impact on our lives and can determine the direction of our lives.  We live in a culture where we don’t like to make choices, we prefer to keep our options open.  But inevitable we have to make choices, even if that choice is to do nothing.  Doing nothing, is still a choice.

But choices can be hard and often we don’t know how to choose between two options, or even whether we should choose at all.  What happens, is that many of us get stuck in a type of choice paralysis and in the process automatically default to having made no choice, still a choice.

We need help in making choices and thankfully scripture gives guidance in how to make choices.

Here are four principles for Choices.

  1. Choices should value relationships over personal rights. In Genesis 13 when Abraham and Lot became wealthy it became necessary for the two of them to split in order to firstly maintain peace (a quarrel arose between Abraham and Lot’s herdsmen) and secondly to be a good example to their neighbours (they were living amount the Canaanites and the Perizzites.)  Abraham wanted “no strife between brothers” (verse 8) but he also had the right to choose land first, since God had given it to him.  Instead, he chose to yield his rights in the interest of the relationship between himself and Lot, and trusted God with his portion.

Rom 14:9 Let us pursue things that make for peace and building up of one another.

Relationship over personal rights

  1. Choices should value godliness of character, over personal gain or greed. After Lot left, Abraham was left in the dust (literally in the dust, since there had been a famine in Canaan -verse 12:10). He must have wondered what he had done! But Abraham had already made a choice to give up the seen, for what is unseen, and chosen to follow the unseen promises of God.  Lot in contrast looked up and chose the land that looked good and would benefit himself financially.  He looked towards Sodom (13:10).  Which meant that he would eventually move his tents near Sodom (13:2) then live in Sodom (14:12).

Abraham’s choice to trust God’s promises had God say to him “lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.  All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.  I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth…” (Gen 13:14-15)

Lots choice would eventually make him spiritually and financially bankrupt so that he would escape from Sodom with the clothes on his back.  Abraham’s choice of godliness resulted in him being spiritually and financially blessed.

Godliness over Personal Gain

  1. Choices should value fellowship with God over the approval of the world. Lot lived in Sodom, Abraham lived in Canaan, both areas were evil.  Why did Abraham not fall for the wickedness like Lot did?  Abraham moved his tent away from the influence of the world, choosing a tent and not a permanent dwelling, indicating that he was passing through.  He also sought out the fellowship of God and built an altar (verse 18), eventually becoming known as a “friend of God.”

Lot in contrast eventually lived in Sodom (14:12) and received the approval of the people while he sat at the gate of Sodom as city official (19:1).  He chose to live with and be a part of those around him.  This represents the challenges all of us face as believers, to pull out of the world, yet not lose our witness.  Versus blend into the world and lose our fellowship with God and our witness.  We are a people who don’t settle in this world (choosing a tent), because we are the people of the King, heaven bound, citizens of heaven (building an altar).  We are a people who chose fellowship with God, over the approval of the world.

Fellowship over the World

  1. Choices should value God’s eternal purposes over immediate pleasure. When Abraham presented the choice to Lot, Abraham had the promises from God given to him in Genesis 12.  Lot knew about these promises and their eternal value, but they were in a desert, so chose immediate benefit and pleasure for himself.

God then went on to expand the promise to Abraham in Genesis 13.  Abraham effectively received the title deed to the land, long before the land was his.  He made his decision based on the eternal promise of God.  Our choices should also be for the kingdom first.  As Paul says in 2 Cor 6:10 we “possess all things but have nothing yet.”  We are a people who like Abraham live by faith and not by sight, relying on the promises of God, not the immediate gratification of our flesh.

Eternal over the immediate

When one considers the impact Lot’s choice had on where he eventually landed up and what happened to his family, it is clear that choices are to be carefully made.  Lot made a choice for himself, he surveyed the land and chose the lush Jordon valley, the first in a series of choices that would lead to his spiritual downfall.

We often don’t take our choices seriously, but keeping in mind that they shape our lives means that we need to take a different attitude to the choices we make everyday.

  • Considering your choices taken in the last few months, and the four principles described above. How well have you done in choosing relationship over personal rights, godliness over personal gain, fellowship with God over the approval of the world, and eternal goals versus immediate satisfaction.
  • What choices that you have made need to be revisited, or changed completely?

Help me Lord to consider my choices.  Help me to question what am I choosing and whether it is a good choice?  Help me to understand the wisdom of my choices according to the Word.  Help me recognise when my choices are leading me to paths that end in my downfall.  Help me to choose your way.