How Much Have My Choices Cost Me?

“I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, 7 or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.” 8 And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. 9 Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. 10 And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. 11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. 12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (NLT)

Lysa Terkeurst wrote a devotional about wishing we all could see the cost of our choices as clearly as a price tag on items in a store. Knowing how much something will cost us, could possibly help us make make some wiser choices in our life instead of the impulsive ones that we make. She also reveals how in our lives Satan keeps the cost hidden until choices are already made and the cost is revealed. (Lysa Terkeurst)

Wow, don’t you wish we were all given a course in high school or college on the “cost of our choices.” I know that I should have taken it several times. I have definitely learned the hard way how to keep up my guard and how to recognized when Satan is tempting and stirring around. The phrase, “God will never give me more than I can handle,” is absolutely false y’all. I hear this at least weekly. God has given me more than I can handle tons of times in my life. It’s the leaning that I do on him to work in my life and being faithful that he will be “my help” that pushes me through times like this.

So how can we see the “cost of our choices” before we make them. Practice not being impulsive on making decisions, ask ourselves if this is something that we can grow or benefit from, and recognize when Satan is lurking. There are warning signs each and every day where Satan is waiting to hook and reel you in and to cost you everything you love. Don’t bite!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20

Counting My Blessings,

Susan Browder