CHOICES

Life is filled with choices. We will all make some bad ones, but how can we increase the odds of making right choices, right decisions, more often?

¹ Oh, the joys of those who do not

follow the advice of the wicked,

or stand around with sinners,

or join in with mockers. Psalms 1:1 NLT

See, it isn’t just your mom and dad saying it! God said it first through the Psalmist, King David.

² But they delight in the law of the LORD,

meditating on it day and night. Psalms 1:2 NLT

While we today are not under the law (no one can keep all 613 commandments) because of the grace of Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross at Calvary on our behalf, we are to study His Word, the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15) and consider how it applies to our lives.

³ They are like trees planted along the riverbank,

bearing fruit each season.

Their leaves never wither,

and they prosper in all they do. Psalms 1:3 NLT

Jesus often referred to the results that our lives produced as “fruit.” If we are doing good things, hanging out with good friends and obeying the authorities over us we will produce good “fruit.”

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Matthew 7:17 NKJV

The good news is that when we choose to depend on Him (Jesus) and let Him help us…we will produce good “fruit” and everyone around us will notice.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5-6 NKJV

Obviously, if choosing to hang out with good friends, studying and meditating on God’s Word and bearing good fruit brings a lasting joy and blessings to our lives, the opposite choice must produce depression, gloom and at the very least, short-lived “joy.” Here’s the rest of Psalms 1

⁴ But not the wicked!

They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.

⁵ They will be condemned at the time of judgment.

Sinners will have no place among the godly.

⁶ For the LORD watches over the path of the godly,

but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Psalms 1:4-6 NLT

In the words of Jesus from verse six in John chapter fifteen,

⁶If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

The choice is ours to make. The stakes are high. Think about it…

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD