Our entire church recently went through “Divine Direction” by Craig Groeschel. The book is all about choices, making progress and improving our lives with the choices we make. It was a great study highlighting the importance of the decisions we make, taking us in the desired direction of honoring God, improving ourselves and making Jesus’ name famous! If you haven’t yet, I would suggest taking the time to purchase the book and read it. A worthy time and financial investment.

One of the central themes of this book is what I want to share a little about today:

Choices.

As Christians, we have the wonderful gift of free will. God granted us the ability to make our own choices. And having the ability to make choices shows where our values lie. God could have created programmed beings, whose only function is to give glory and praise to their Creator. But, instead, He permitted choice to His created. Choice is beautiful. Choice is scary. Choice is how we express what matters most to us. And as Christians, choice is worship to our Creator.

Our lives are made up of choices. Our future is guided by our decisions, big and small alike. We make choices based on our options, and in today’s world, we have seemingly unending options. Which can lead to no choice at all.

As an example: in the Netflix and Hulu world, we essentially have access to any show, movie, documentary or series ever created. We have options for literally any kind of mood, desire or time frame. But with so many options one of two things tends to happen: 1. you get overwhelmed, so you do not choose anything – or – 2. you spend time searching, only to go back to something you are familiar with.

Because our lives are shaped by the choices we make, the choices we make MATTER! In a world where the generation rising up is crippled by the unending options life has to offer, we often see no choice, which is a choice in and of itself. How many of us can relate to being so afraid of making the wrong decision, we make no decision at all?

Here is the point I want to get at today. I believe we cannot make a “bad” decision. I certainly believe we can make “wrong” decisions. However, learning from the “wrong” decisions is what helps us grow, develop and mature. In life, we are always moving forward. Each choice guides our path, alters our direction or changes the timeline, but we are always moving forward.

Our “wrong” decisions become “bad” decisions when:

• We are in direct disobedience to God
• We act immorally or sinfully
• We are unwilling to learn from our mistakes!

Believe me, I have made plenty of “wrong” decisions, and I am sure you can relate with this sentiment as well. We always look back, maybe feel regret or shame and mourn what could have been. Hindsight is always 20/20.

The reason I wanted to touch on this topic was to hopefully free you up! I know when I gained this understanding, I felt more comfortable making decisions in life. God may not lay out a step by step process for you to follow in your life. He may not tell you specifically whether or not to move to another city, which college you should attend, to take a different job or to start a business.

Here is my belief, as long as we don’t compromise the 3 guidelines I mentioned above, all the while seeking God’s heart, I do not think we can make a “bad” decision.

No one is perfect, we do the best we can with what we have. Life is long, today’s “mess up” does not have to derail you for years. If it is the wrong choice, oh well! You learn from it, try to not make the same mistake and keep your eye on the type of person you want to continue to become.

What choice do you need to make you have been putting off? What potential decision in your life is scaring you right now? How are you going to get yourself to the point of making the decision you need to make?

To go a little deeper, here is a link to a similar post titled, “How Are You Bettering Yourself?“