“Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.” Psalm 37:3 NLT

If I made the wrong choice, I’d have to fast the remainder of the day.

My wife and I recently began the Weight Watchers eating plan. I’ve never tried it before, but it’s a diet I can live with. The diet gives me the choice of eating anything I want. All foods are assigned a certain number of points, and I’m assigned a certain point limit based on my height and weight.

Eating whatever I want appeals to me. But the kicker is that my choices have consequences. If I choose to visit a fast food restaurant for lunch and supersize my meal, I’ll likely not enjoy the rest of my day. I may even have to fast. On the other hand, if I spread my points out evenly during the day, I can enjoy eating many things I enjoy without going over my limit. I’ll even have enough left over to enjoy a bedtime snack.

So far, the diet is working. I’m enjoying eating-something I haven’t done on other diets, and I’m losing weight.

The psalmist also gives me a choice. Actually two. Trust God and do good. If I do, good consequences will follow. I’ll prosper spiritually-and perhaps in others ways too.

The two imperatives from the writer are similar to the two greatest commands Jesus proffered: love God with your heart, soul, and mind, and love others as yourself. Making these two choices may appear easy on the surface, but they are difficult to put into practice because of my two-sided nature.

I was born with a sinful nature. When I trusted Christ, He gave me a new nature. Even though I have a new nature, I still remember how life was when I lived it by the fleshly nature. Now I have a battle raging, which makes making the best choices in life challenging. If I feed the fleshly nature, I’ll make poor-perhaps sinful, choices. If I feed the new nature, I’ll make the best choices. The choice is mine.

But life doesn’t have to be a losing battle. When we feed our new nature with spiritual activities, when we walk by faith, and when we trust Christ for the strength to do both, we’ll come out on the winning end.

Don’t lead a defeated life because of poor choices. Let God lead you to make the best choices.

Martin Wiles Hodges, South Carolina, USA