The heart of our Heavenly Father is for all people to live a successful Christian life. Sometimes we forget that this is His desire, especially during the most challenging times of our lives. It’s one of the reasons that God tells us to study and meditate on His Word, so that our minds will be renewed to what He thinks and speaks. In 3John 1:2(KJV), He tells us, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” He wants us to prosper and be in good health, and He desires that our souls will prosper, as we store His goodness in our hearts and minds.
Our lives should be a testimony of God’s goodness, but we know that every Christian does not have a life like this. 2Corinthians 13:5 tells us that every person should examine themselves to see whether they are in the faith. Part of this examination is looking closely at the decisions and choices we have made in the past and the ones we are making today. We’ve heard it said many times that life is a series of choices that we make every day. In truth, we make hundreds, if not thousands of choices, in the span of a day. These choices have consequences, and this is often the part of life we like least, but it truly demonstrates God’s grace. He’s given us the gift of free-will choice, and He allows us to govern our lives any way we like.
In 1Corinthians 3:10(NKJV), the Apostle Paul said, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.” Through our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, God has given each of us the grace to be master builders of our lives. We decide whether we’re going to build using the wisdom of God’s Word or whether we will build our lives using the building material of worldly and negative thinking, opinions, and behaviors. We can be wise master builders, or we can be foolish ones. It’s up to us.
God hopes we’ll chose to be wise master builders, and that we will build on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. He wants us to think about what we’re doing and not be prone to hasty decisions. God wants to be involved in all our decisions and choices, whether they are big or small. We need to get in the habit of consulting Him first instead of having regrets that we have to pray about after the damage is done. Making avoidable and costly mistakes is exactly what the enemy wants us to do; he wants to blind our minds through a bombardment of distractions, so that we will not think about what we’re doing. When we don’t take a minute to hit the pause button, we don’t give ourselves time to invite the Lord to lead and guide us in the decision-making process.
Ephesians 1:4-5(NLT) tells us, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” This passage informs us that we were in the mind of God long before anything in this world existed. He thought about us, chose us, and fitted us to His plan. Nothing about us is an accident. Heavenly Father wanted us to be a part of His family, and He has a very good plan for our individual lives.
Heavenly Father has laid this all out, but it’s not like we’re puppets, moving to a prewritten script. He gives us tremendous grace, and we need it, because we make a whole bunch of mistakes. When we continue on a mistake-riddled path, we will eventually miss the blessings God has in store for us, and He doesn’t want that. He wants the best for us! Therefore, we should want the best for ourselves, and the absolute best is only available through Christ. In John 14:6(NLT), Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” He knows the best path for us, and it is one that leads to pleasing Heavenly Father and living abundantly as well. If we will allow Jesus to guide us through the Holy Spirit, we can make good decisions and choices. We’ll witness our lives begin to expand and blossom in wonderful ways.
You and I are responsible for building our lives, and God has given us everything we need to do it masterfully. It is available from Him to be guided in a way that we steer clear of mistakes that cause us to lose stamina and momentum. We are here today because of the choices we made in the past, and our future is dependent on the choices we make today. If we’re humble enough to learn from our past mistakes, patient enough to listen for God’s voice, and wise enough to follow His directives, our confidence in our decision-making will grow. We’ll demonstrate a commitment to be obedient to God’s Word. Joshua 1:8 tells us that when we do this, we’ll make our way prosperous and we’ll have good success. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
“Wise Choices Lead to A Successful Christian Life”, written by JMack, theChristianMan.com© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.