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
