What It Takes To Make Right Choices

What It Takes To Make
Right Choices

Life is so full of choices. Some are easy, but some are hard. Everyone must make choices. No one is exempt. We must learn to make the right choices. Unfortunately, we often learn the hard way, by making the wrong choices. It requires God’s wisdom to make the right choices. How we make our choices can mean the difference between success or failure. It is vitally important that fathers make the wisest choices because their entire family will be affected by them.

Joshua is a good example of a godly father who made a major choice that touched his family and affected a nation. God appointed Joshua to be Moses’ successor to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. For 25 years he gave direction to them, but they still remained undecided as to which God they would serve – Jehovah, the false Gods of the Egyptians, or those of the people in whose land they lived (Josh. 24:14-15).

Joshua reminded them of God’s goodness, telling them that God had never failed to be true to His promises (24:13). He then called them to choose who they would serve. In doing so, he set a challenge and an example before them: “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve ... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (24:15). Joshua’s choice was not dependent on theirs. It was already a settled matter with him and his family. Tragically, we often wait to see what others do before we decide.

To be as decisive as Joshua in making our choices, we need five things.

DESIRE
We have to want to do it. It is the lack of desire that often keeps families from making important choices. Somehow we’ve come to believe that it’s easier to remain undecided, to stay neutral. But in doing so, we’ve already made a choice, and it’s usually the wrong one. We need to desire what God wants.

DETERMINATION
We have to make the commitment to do it. Lack of determination is where desire dies. We may want to make the right choice, but if we are not determined, it won’t happen. Joshua not only had the desire, he determined to do right even if his was the only family in the whole nation to do so.

DISCIPLINE
We have to pay the price to do it. Making choices is costly! That’s what discourages many families. They have the desire, and are determined, but when they count the cost they change their mind. They lack the discipline to make the choice and abide by it regardless of what’s involved. There is risk in making choices. That’s where faith enters. Facts and feelings can be discouraging, but faith says, “I can trust God, no matter what!” Joshua was willing to take a step of faith in spite of the risk.

DIRECTION
We have to have a plan to do it. Where can we get the direction we can trust, when we have to make choices? Only in the Word of God! Human reasoning is not enough. We often shy away from making difficult choices because we lack confidence. Romans 10:17 says, “Now then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Psalm 119:105 reminds us that God’s Word is “a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The darkness of the unknown can be very forbidding. But allowing God’s Word to be our light gives us the security we need in the choices we must make.

DYNAMIC
We have to have the power to do it. God’s Word gives us direction; God’s Spirit gives the dynamic. Human wisdom and strength fail. But in God’s strength we succeed. God says it is “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit sayeth the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). What we can’t do in human weakness, we can do in God’s strength. Only as the Holy Spirit energizes us can we make those all-important choices that seem so hard.

Is your family facing difficult choices? If so, remember Joshua. His determination to make a very hard choice encouraged Israel to say, “The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey” (Josh. 24:24). You never know how your choice to obey God may affect your family and other families as well.

By Jack & June Palmer