{Monday Meditations} Test Your Choices!

During revival at my church this week, our speaker Dan Knickerbocker presented a message about testing your choices before you make them. He gave us eight different tests and I want to share them with you for a Monday Meditation.

1. Scriptural Test (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Has God spoken to you about your decision through the Bible?
II Timothy 3:16 says "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
The Bible is our letter from God to us! All His instructions for us on how we are to live our lives! Check the Bible before you make a decision.

2. Secrecy Test (Proverbs 11:1-2)
Would it bother you if everyone knew about the choice you made?
Proverbs 11:1-2 "A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom."
This is pretty self-explanatory. Would you want others to know what decisions you made? You decisions should not be something you want to hide from others.

3. Survey Test (1 Timothy 4:12)
Would you want everyone to follow your example?
I Timothy 4:12 says "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
We are to be examples and leaders to everyone we meet. Would we want other people we know to make the same decision we are making now?

4. Spiritual Test (Galatians 1:10)
Are you being people-pressured or Spirit-led?
Galatians 1:10, "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
Don't make a decision just because other people want you to make that specific decision. God should be clearly leading you to this decision, not people.

5. Stumbling Test (Romans 14:21)
Could it cause someone else to stumble?
Romans 14:21 tells us, "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak."
Some of you might have heard of the "Weaker Brother Principle". This basically means, we need to be cautious of the decisions we make especially around new Christians. Going back to the third test, we need to be an example to others and need to make decisions that show we are a Christian through and through.

6. Serenity Test (Philippians 4:6-7)
Have you prayed and received peace about it?
Philippians 4:6-7 says "Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer an supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
Every decision we make we should check with God and ask for His wisdom and guidance.

7. Sanctification Test (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Will this keep me from growing in the Lord?
II Corinthians 3:18 reads, "But we all with open face beholding as in a glass [a mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
Keyword here is CHANGED. When we become a child of God, we should be a new creature, our lives should change for the better. Now we need to make decisions that help us to grow in God and not decrease our growth.

8. Supreme Test (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Does it glorify God?
This verse says: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Every decision we make should glorify God.

Whether you're making a big decision, like where to go to college, or making a small decision, like what you're going to wear today, think about these eight tests!