Many years ago, I met an elderly
cab driver who is from same Country as I but lives in a Country where he had
lived for several years and worked as cab driver for all the time he lived in
that Country. He told me how he became a driver and remained one forever. He said
he went to the Country as a teenager to study medicine, to one day become a
medical doctor. On arrival there, he felt the need to make more money and live
the life he thought he should have as a student and realized he could easily
make money driving cabs; so, he got a job as cab driver. The money he earned
seemed to give him that good life; so, to earn a little more money so as to be
more comfortable in school, he deferred his resumption. Unfortunately, that was
the beginning of many postponing of resumption until he couldn’t go to school
anymore. This all started with wanting a little more money but he ended up
losing his dream which he never forgot. He said he never thought he would end
up a cab driver. One seemingly harmless decision after another and the course
of a man’s life is changed forever.
1 Timothy 6: 10 “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of
evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and
pierced themselves with many sorrows.”
This seems like one of the ways
the enemy destroys lives today. It’s not that life dealt him a portion that has
never been dealt to any one before who ended up succeeding. Some other persons
have gone through similar experiences but still remained on course because they
made different sets of decisions so that his problem was really with the way he
responded to the challenges that life dealt him. Our responses to life’s
challenges are our decisions; and these decisions determine where we end up.
These decisions are predicated on what we have inside us which is our true
belief system. As believers, we may pray and study our bibles daily but if our
mind is not impacted by all of these, then we would make less than godly
decisions. If we insist on remaining wise in our own eyes, we remain very
selfish and/or conceited and unable to take in the wisdom and/or counsel of God
despite that we pray and appear to read the bible. All we then do, is acquire knowledge
but not the Spirit of the Word. This is recipe for failure which would not be
life’s fault nor God’s. If blame were to be apportioned, it would be the
believer’s fault. Feelings though good in their place, should never be the
bedrock of our decision making process continually. Our lives are built on the
blocks of our decisions; so our decisions cannot be built on feelings which are
very flimsy. We cannot afford to make decisions that will impact on our entire
lives forever based on feelings that are here today and gone tomorrow; except
of course if one thinks their life Is not worth as much as God who sent His Son
to die for us, thinks.
Proverbs 23: 12 “commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to
words of knowledge.”
Proverbs 23: 17 “Don’t envy sinners, but always continue to fear the
Lord. You will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed.”
It is okay to feel just the way
you feel; but when it is time to make decisions, we must put our feelings aside
and make our decisions based on godly wisdom. It is best to be accused of making
decisions too slowly than to make quick decisions that end up ruining your
life. Decisions based on the flesh are like sinking sand and as such, will not
take the weight of challenges that will come in the future. They will also not
really move anyone forward. It is expedient for believers to spend time with
God but more importantly, is the need to open up ourselves as we approach the
word; granting this Word the permit to change us by changing our minds and/or
thought process. It is safe to evaluate our decision making parameters from
time to time just to ensure that our decisions come from the right place. I
would also go on to suggest self – evaluation because it is easier to lie to
others than yourself. If we find that our decision making is not rooted in the
right thing, we can make appropriate changes and realign. God never lives us,
we leave Him and He always desires and waits for us to return. Whenever we
return, He can put things back together for us. We don’t have to be like my
friend whose life never realigned and only just told the story. It is not
enough to just keep telling the story; we can make a change and begin afresh;
for our God is a God of new beginnings.
Luke 6: 45 “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a
good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an
evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”
Psalm 119: 11 “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin
against you.”
No comments:
Post a Comment