Choices Matter

March 13, 2008

By Scott McChrystal

“Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her” (Proverbs 8:10,11, NIV).

Have you stopped lately to think about the impact of choices? Every day offers dozens of choices, some important, others not so important. But be sure of this. Choices do matter.

Our daughter is a physician’s assistant working for an orthopedic surgeon. During their on-call period over a recent weekend, a motorcyclist was brought by ambulance to the emergency room with severe injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident. While the young man was going to survive the ordeal, he would never be the same. Sadly, the young man had made the choice not to wear sufficient protective clothing for motorcycle riding.

Fighting the good fight in your walk of faith (2 Timothy 4:7) is about making the right choices. It starts with evaluating how you make choices. Are you making your choices according to your own wisdom, or do you seek the Lord’s wisdom for making decisions? The Lord has given you intelligence, abilities and rational thinking capabilities. Still, He hasn’t left you to make all of life’s choices on your own. None of us has the necessary smarts.

The writer of these verses, King Solomon, tells us that God’s wisdom is superior to anything we can desire. No amount of human knowledge or experience can surpass it.

Want to make a smart choice? Today, make up your mind to seek God’s wisdom for the decisions you make. Depending on your present decision-making habits, this may represent a huge change. It will be worth it. God has promised us.

— Scott McChrystal served for seven years as senior chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and is the military representative for the Assemblies of God Chaplaincy Department.