CHOICES

CHOICES

We all make them everyday. Choices, that is. Your decision to stop and read this piece is a choice, one that I hope is a good and profitable one. It is what makes us human, a manifest demonstration of the grace and goodness of God to us all. Apart from the choice made by most of our parents to have us, the responsibility for most of the rest of our lives lies with us. Our lives are determined by the choices we make. Daily. Weekly. Monthly. Yearly. You are what you choose to do.

Seeing the vital impact which choices have on our lives – past, present and future – perhaps it is helpful to ask what appears to be a mundane question but is actually a really important reflection: how do we arrive at our choices? How do we decide? What influences our decision-making? Our feelings? Emotions? Friends? Reason? My sense is that for most, the answer lies somewhere in-between fact and feeling. Permit me to make one more suggestion: why not add God’s word to the mix?

Personally, one of the guiding principles for living, which I believe the Lord has helped me understand is that it does matter to be spiritual, sensitive and sensible. Put differently, one framework for reaching decisions, especially pivotal ones which will have lasting impact, is to approach such matters with spiritual insight, be very sensitive to what God’s Spirit is saying to you in that situation and be sensible by applying sanctified thinking to doing whatever needs to be done.

foolishly. The scriptures tell us that Eve’s choice that fateful day led to a hugely costly error: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” (Genesis 3:6). Which food was Eve actually lacking in the garden? It had all been given to her and her husband, except for the tree which God placed out-of-bounds to them. What beauty could that tree have had which would not have comparable rivals in the beautiful garden city of Eden? What wisdom was Eve lacking, when her husband named just about everything in Eden?

It is obvious that Eve became distracted, the more she engaged in conversation with the serpent who was subtly sowing the seed of doubt in her heart about the best intentions of God for her and Adam, with regard to obedience to God’s word. The Devil’s tactics have changed little since Eden. John the Apostle admonishes Christians that the trickery of the serpent in Eden continues till today: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1 John 2:16). With hindsight, Eve failed to act with spirituality, sensitivity and sensibility. We do not have to make a similar mistake. Choose life.

Pastor Modupe Afolabi

is the Editor-in-Chief of Sunrise and Executive Administrator of RCCG Central Office.