You can if you want to.
There is so much personal power in that statement. Ultimately, you have to choose. Choosing not to choose and letting things happen externally from your locus of control is a choice.
You choose to get up and go to bed. You choose to work, heartily or lazily. You choose to brush your teeth. You even choose to use a toilet when nature calls. Your choice is real, and you will make a gazillion of them in a lifetime.
That endowment of choice, designed into the fabric of our soul – who we are – is one of the greatest attributes of the image of God given to humanity.
Quite possibly, choice is our highest human element of destiny. Mind scientists estimate that we make approximately 35,000 choices a day. Suppose we sleep an average of seven hours per night, which comes out to about 2000 choices per hour. In everything we do, our mind has an automatic calculator that inputs information into our decision-making. We become unaware of many of these choices, like scratching an itch.
However, some decisions are not mindless but very mindful. Some are heavily influenced by emotion, history, experience, fear, faith, and other elements that live in our souls.
My greatest passion is soul prosperity, assisting you in a progressive journey of growth, accomplishment, and spiritual wisdom to live as an overcomer.
I want to coach you in being mindful of your important choices. How do you best do that?
Acknowledge the freedom and the power of your choices as given by your Creator. The best example of this is God's pleasure in providing wisdom, or knowledge before we need it, when he says, “Today I place before you life and death, choose life.“
o Without personal freedom or autonomy, life would be programmed and scripted by a controlling force. That is an impossibility in a culture of love, care, and protection. For God to love us and hope that we love him back, we have to be free in order to love.
Factor into your choices the eternal wisdom that God offers us in his historic investment in life preparation, the collective works in the Bible.
o Peter, the great friend and disciple of Jesus, writes to fellow believers, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue…” In other words, we have the information to live fully, live well, live wisely, and succeed.
Discipline yourself to make major choices, bathed in prayer. Call on God's presence and power to help you in your future vision, seeing the results of your decisions in advance.
o When you do not know, do not move. I love the Scriptural promise that says we can follow peace. We are also instructed that peace, the presence of knowledge that all is well and will be, is a gift from God’s Spirit. Pray through circumstances, challenges, and choices until you have peace in the direction to move ahead.
Seek trusted counsel to hear you, pray for/with you, and encourage you in wisdom rather than emotion.
o In seeking counsel, not agreement, we find protection. Even when we feel like God has given us direction, we seek confirmation from those who have already walked the pathway of following the Word and the Spirit and finding a place of peace.
I enjoy creating content for you to think with, to let sink deeply into your mind, will, and emotions as you become even more grounded, wise, and successful. Let’s stay together. Care to begin pastoral connection and coaching? Write us at pastoralcoaching@philunderwood.com today.
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