Choices We Make

Choices We Make

by Pastor Alphonze

 

Everybody makes choices

A choice is an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.

We all make decisions, informed or otherwise, and decisions decide our destiny.

“I sincerely believe the next level of your life is at the mercy of your choices or decisions and your decisions are at the mercy of the manifestation of the wisdom that you posses.“

The average person makes at least 10,000 choices per day.

Some choices are automatic, embedded deep in our subconscious, like when we put on a shirt, we automatically know which arm goes to the right or left  sleeve.

But there are some choices that we need to be more conscious of because they are not automatic and result in consequences, such choices have “pay back.’

One of the certainties in life is that each one of us will make choices.

“It is good to remember that choices gives birth to consequences.”

Consequences are more important than the choices!

I have often  heard people say  that  “You live with the decisions you make”.  I am in the school of thought that will argue that, it’s not actually true, I believe you live with the consequences.  Decision is a matter of one moment but the consequences birthed by the choices are abiding.

These three things should be taken into consideration while making choices or decisions:

First- BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND. Ensure you study the biblical outcome of a decision before making it. Your everyday choices  are to be energized by the active information of the word of God. ‘There is a way that seemeth right to a man but the end thereof is death.’ Proverbs 14:12.

Second- DON’T BE HASTY WITH DESTINY DECISIONS. Apply the law of faith and patience. Proverbs 25:8 

Third- SEEK COUNSEL. ‘Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out’, Proverbs 20:4. ‘For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counselors there is safety’. Proverbs 24:6. ‘Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety’ , Proverbs 11:14.

Adam had to make three major choices and you will have to make them as well.

1-What You Feed On

The first important choice everyone has to make is WHAT TO FEED ON. ‘And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die’ , Genesis 2:15-17.

Adam was given the option to choose what he fed on. Feeding is not just food for the body but also what you allow into your system. Food is not only what we put in our mouth in terms of protein, carbohydrates and vitamins. What we allow into our minds and thought life can also be termed as food. Attitudes, values, emotions and responses are all received as raw materials and eventually put together by professional cooks to comprise a meal. In Fact this kind of diet is more crucial than what we physically eat. As we see from scripture, what looks good is not necessarily nutritious. It may be junk food or poison. You have to choose what you hear, you have to choose what you read and the words you come into contact with.

• If you feed yourself a diet of  hatred, you will be hateful.
• If you feed yourself a diet of fear, you will be  fearful.
• If you feed yourself a diet of love, you will be loving.
• If you feed yourself a diet of faith, you will have faith. 
• If you feed yourself a diet of  holiness, you will be holy. 
• If you feed yourself a diet of lust, you will be lustful.

The psalmist wrote in Psalms 34:8: O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

Tasting has a a way of triggering your sight and how you perceive things

2-What You Label Things That Come Your Way

The second big choice Adam had to make is what to call the things. ‘And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof’.  Genesis 2:19.

Adam did not create the conditions, he did  not create any animals. He was just minding his business when God arrayed animals in front of him to see what he would call them. You have a choice to name the things that you don’t control. You don’t control who gives birth to you, you did not choose your parents but you have to choose what to call them. You don’t control where you were born or your race  but you have to determine what to call it,  you can choose to label yourself a victim or a victor. In life there are things that come your way, trouble, tragedy,  difficulties, but you have to determine what you call it.

“Whatever comes your way you have a choice of how to label it because the label you put on your circumstance will brand your experience in your memory and in your lifetime.”

If you call your marriage a prison, it will be a prison to you.

If you call your wife  a tiger she will pounce on you!

The bible says ‘let the weak say I am strong’ and that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Joel 3:10, Proverbs 18:21

3- Who You Welcome Into Your Life

The third big choice Adam had to make was who to welcome into his life. You choose who to welcome into your life. ‘And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man’ , Genesis 2:29.

God did not force Eve into Adams life, He just paraded her in front of him, Adam had  to make a choice either to welcome her into his life or reject her. 

When God presented Eve to Adam, Adam made a choice and said I want this person in my life, he made that choice himself and not by imposition of God.

Friendship is not by force, anyone who wants to be your friend by force has an agenda.

Some people are so toxic with negativity that they drain the life out of themselves and those they come in contact with. Do your best to love them anyway, however any attempt to change or fix them when they are not ready to do so will only drain the life out of you. Find those who radiate life, light, and warmth, and build solid connections with them, as it will serve to increase your fruitfulness in exponential ways.

You have to determine who is coming into your life and who is exiting your life.

Adam chose a woman, the opposite,  and in the physical sense that is right but it also means that most of the people you bring into your life must be people who compliment you, people who add to your life, people who complete your life. They may not look like you but they add into your life, they complete you. These kinds of people help you avoid having a serious distortion of perception because they give you the option of seeing the other side.

People usually do not go to restaurants because of proximity but based on their dietary needs and tastes, we bypass a lot of eating places to find one that provides food and services we are satisfied with.

The power of choice  and decision making is in your hands.

• Make a decision to know God and be passionate about the things of God.
• Make the decision to be transformed.
• Make the decision to be valuable.
• Make the decision to have strategic relationships that matter.
• Make the decision to pay attention to your health and well being.

I am always in total amazement when I watch people make consequential decisions, of the folly of such break neck speed and robustness with which they pursue those choices to ultimately arrive at dead ends. But they don’t know any difference, so they are happy pursuing those ends with vigor, ultimately coming face to face with numerous consequences. But I know that if they love God there is always a second chance and a way out .

“The next level of your life is going to be determined by the choices you make today.“

Make wise choices!