How many times have you asked for guidance? How often are you looking for advice to make a key decision? Do you ask others for their thoughts or what they would do? Have you thought you need to have a firm foundation of principles to guide your decisions?
We make many decisions each day from what we eat for breakfast to where we will get gas for our vehicle. We may have read books on how to weigh the pros and cons of each choice available to us. Yet, we seek someone we trust to provide advice.
I believe taking time to think through the options available to us is important. Using our imagination to look for every option is a good practice. As we look at those options, identifying the pros and cons of each is a sound practice. But how do we determine which one is the best option for us? We must rely on the best principles.
Where do we get the principles to base our decisions on? We should spend time looking at God’s laws. We often think of laws as being hard and fast. For instance, we know we are not to steal. Though some of Gods laws are very much hard and fast like this one, there are many others that are more akin to principles.
Principles are not hard and fast laws but are fundamental guidelines on which laws or other principles are derived. Doesn’t it make sense that we should live our lives on sound principles? What better principles are there than God’s?
As we read God’s Word, looking specifically for those principles, and we take them into our being, we build a firm foundation for making decisions. We also find that many of our decisions are insignificant when we look at them through the eyes of God.
As followers of Christ, we are expected to live by God’s laws and His principles. Sure, we are human and cannot do so perfectly. Otherwise, Jesus would not have needed to sacrifice Himself for us. Yet, that is no reason to stop trying to live by them to the very best of our ability. We are to constantly seek self-improvement by following God’s direction and guidance. This ranges from taking care of our environment to loving one another with the same love Christ has for us.
I pray we all read God’s Word to know His laws and principles. I pray each of us use them as our foundation. I pray each of us make every attempt to live by God’s laws and principles, making our world a better place. Read God’s Word. Seek to understand His laws. Build a firm foundation on His laws. Make your decisions easier. Base your decisions on sound principles.
Psalm 19:8
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
Marty Pressey 