Make Good Choices: How Your Inward Reality Impacts Your Outward Decisions
All to save just a minute or two of drive time, I thought, my hands still gripping the steering wheel, as my nerves began to settle. My children and I had set out that morning on a day trip to visit family, our route taking us through the city on a notoriously bad stretch of highway. The drive there was smooth and unusually free of traffic, but the drive home was proving to be a different story.
Every daring driver in the county seemed to have the idea that this was their evening to be on the road. I had my eye on one such driver, several cars ahead of me. As he approached a semi from behind, rather than waiting for a safe opportunity to pass, he zipped out in front of a car in the oncoming lane, only narrowly escaping a major collision as he slid back in front of the semi.
To me, a decision like that seemed unthinkable. When I considered why, I realized a big reason was all the little people in the car with me—the children I have been entrusted to care for. As a parent, I understand the weight of seemingly small decisions that impact not just me but my children. The same is true in the Christian life: our choices are not our own.
A Tale of Two People
The Bible has a lot to say about the decisions we make, and more importantly, the heart that drives those choices. This is perhaps demonstrated nowhere more clearly than in Proverbs, where the wise and foolish (or wicked) person—and their subsequent attitudes, actions, and words—are juxtaposed time and time again.
As shameful conduct is pleasure for a fool,
so wisdom is for a person of understanding.(Proverbs 10:23)
A wise person is cautious and turns from evil,
but a fool is easily angered and is careless. (Proverbs 14:16)
The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush,
but the speech of the upright rescues them. (Proverbs 12:6)
Proverbs is also clear about the cause of this stark contrast: whether or not a person fears the Lord. A life of wisdom begins in the disposition of our heart toward its Maker. Our lives will demonstrate whether we look to Him as the source of everything we need to live thriving, faithful lives or whether we look to our limited knowledge and unreliable feelings.
The fear of the LORD
is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7)
Not only do the wise life and the foolish life result in dramatically different outcomes, but Scripture makes it clear that there is safety in wisdom. It keeps us from speaking words that damage relationships, wither our spiritual lives, and even possibly cause an untimely physical death. It truly impacts everything.
The fear of the LORD prolongs life,
but the years of the wicked are cut short. (Proverbs 10:27)For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He stores up success for the upright;
He is a shield for those who live with integrity
so that he may guard the paths of justice
and protect the way of his faithful followers. (Proverbs 2:6–8)
Our Choices Impact Others
It may seem obvious how our wise or foolish choices impact those around us, but let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say. Psalm 1:1 declares,
How happy is the one who does not
walk in the advice of the wicked
or stand in the pathway with sinners
or sit in the company of mockers!
And Paul warned, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals’” (1 Cor. 15:33).
The people we spend time with influence us whether we want them to or not. This is why we need to not only seek fellowship with those who push us toward Christ but aim to be that person for others. We’re commanded to “consider one another in order to provoke love and good works”(Heb. 10:24). The jokes we make, the attitudes we express toward our family or work or church, and the way we present ourselves play a role in shaping others.
And in regard to those who look up to us—whether our children or others in our sphere of influence—the warnings are even more pointed. Jesus said,
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” (Mark 9:42)
Foolish decisions, large or small, can have long-term consequences on impressionable, vulnerable people. It’s easy to despair when we consider the times we’ve said or done things that have negatively affected others. But one of the astounding truths of the gospel is that in Christ we also have the ability to repent of those choices, acknowledging they were wrong and asking for forgiveness.
Confessing our sin can have a significant impact on those in our care because it’s yet another way to show that we, just like them, need Jesus. Yes, the severity and frequency of those foolish choices should certainly diminish as we grow in Christ. But we can have hope and rejoice in the reality that Jesus redeems and can turn even our wrong choices into a story that proclaims His glory.
Our Choices Are to Proclaim Christ
Lastly, our lives are to be a testimony to the world of the incredible salvation and transformation that comes from Christ. Matthew 5:16 says,
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
And in Philippians 2:14–15, Paul tells us,
Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.
It’s an honor and privilege to represent and proclaim Jesus to a lost and dying world with our lips and with our lives. Yet we often forget this when the world’s allure draws our attention and our flesh demands satisfaction. We so badly want to fit in, to not look weird, to “let our hair down a little.”
But didn’t Jesus purchase us at the greatest of costs: His very life? This is why we have to be vigilant to keep the Bible wide open before us, hiding its precious truths in our hearts “so that [we] might not sin against [Him]” (Psalm 119:11).
Our default must be ruthless resistance to every temptation that dishonors our Savior. Thanksgiving for what He’s done for us should continually overflow from our lips, pushing back the discontent and despair that can impact our decisions and cloud out the reality of the grace we’ve been given “for life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).
As we consider our choices going forward, may the cry of our hearts echo that of the great preacher Charles Spurgeon:
God grant, if we must have two eyes, that they may be both clear ones, one the eye of faith wholly fixed on Christ, the other the eye of obedience equally and wholly fixed on the same object.1
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1 “A Single Eye and Simple Faith,” The Spurgeon Center, September 16, 1860, https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/a-single-eye-and-simple-faith/#flipbook/.
