Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)
Every day of our lives we are faced with choices from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep. We choose whether to stay in bed or get up, what we have for breakfast, what clothes we will wear for the day and so on. Our whole life is made up of choices of varying degrees, whether they are made by us or someone else.
Some choices we face are ones that could be termed as trivial – it doesn’t matter what is decided because we can live with whatever choice is made. Other choices take a bit more thought and time before we come to a satisfactory decision. Then there are those choices which cause anxiety and stress as we struggle to decide what we want or what we should be doing.
The hardest choices in life (the ones we struggle with the most) are those that have a direct bearing on the path our life will take. We want to make the right choice but have troubles deciding what that is. It becomes even more difficult when we are faced with multiple options. Do I choose that door, or that one over there, or that one right in front of me?
Picking the right door can be hindered by numerous factors, the chief one being one being fear. Making the right decision is paramount because it is one that really matters to us. Agonising over the options we have to choose from are part and parcel of the decision-making process because we want to make the decision ourselves and not have someone make it for us. Our greatest fear is that the choice is taken out of our hands and the decision is made for us.
Having someone else make the choice for us leaves us with the feeling that we are not in control of our lives – our destiny. If the choice made by someone else for us is the wrong one, then at least we have somebody to blame. Unfortunately, as a result, we find ourselves either back where we started or contemplating a new choice altogether. This time around we become more determined than ever to make the choice ourselves and not to leave in the hands of somebody else.
Even though we are making the choice, the fear of making the wrong choice lingers in our minds. How do we know we are picking the right door? Do we have all the information we need to make the right choice? We are virtually alone in the world as we struggle with making the right choice.
However, there is a solution to making the right choice. It begins with trusting God and giving our lives to Him. The world’s view is one that we are foolish to do so but in reality, there is no sense of loss but a sense of empowerment. We know that our lives matter to God and he has the best choices for us. He knows where we are going and what we need to do.
In return we know that everything will be okay in the end as long we recognise that He is looking after us and showing us which door to go through. All we have to do is keep our eyes upon Him and listen to what He says either directly or through people who give us sound advice.
Choosing and going through the right door will never be hard as we continue to place our trust in God and remember that He will always make our paths straight.
Originally published at Inspirational Christian Blogs in August 2016