Now I know that all Christians, including myself, believe that they are on the side of good. I mean, we're children of God who is the ultimate good, made in his image, and have accepted him as our lord and savior of our lives. So of course we're good, right?
Well I don't think the answer is a simple yes or no...
I think that whether we are good or not depends on what we think, what we believe, and what we do - in that order from least important to most important. So we are constantly changing between good and evil. Well, evil may be too strong a word, but often times it's right on the mark too.
We all know that we're imperfect beings, who have sinned, and will almost definitely sin again. A sin is essentially doing anything that is opposed to what God's will. So since we are sinful beings, we are not good. It may seem too extreme to call us evil though if we do something that's opposed to God's will. After all, committing murder is an evil act for sure, but is it on the same level as say not taking a day of rest (the Sabbath) one week? Both are contrary to God's will since both are commandments, but are they both evil acts? I don't know... but I'd like to think not. Maybe there's some other term we can use for Christians who have been saved by grace and follow Jesus as their lord, but who still knowingly sin because of their own weaknesses. I'm going to call that irresponsible, rather than evil.
Now let me get to my main point...
We all make many, many decisions each day. Now most of them are superfluous and wouldn't be considered as being things that are necessarily in line with God's will nor opposed to it. Examples would be things like which pair of socks you put on in the morning or whether you brush your teeth or take a shower first. And some decisions can be argued as being in line with God's will or not. Examples could be whether what you choose to eat for breakfast is healthy or not, whether you obey the speed limit while driving to work or go a couple miles per hour over the limit, or watching a movie with nudity, swearing and violence in it. Those are things that you could correlate with either being aligned with God's will or not, but they aren't necessarily good or evil as much as they are responsible or irresponsible.
But many decisions you make can be considered as being things that are either aligned with God's will or opposed to it. And these decisions are then also choices you're making about which side you're on, good or evil, God's side or Satan's side. Examples of these types of decision are whether you participate in gossiping about someone behind their back with your friends, or put a stop to it or leave the group when they start the gossiping; whether you get angry with your spouse and let your emotions take over and fight with them about something, or talk to them in a calm, loving, and respectful way and forgive them and do your best to reconcile with them afterwards; or whether you lie to someone because you don't want them to be mad at you or you don't want to face the consequences of something you did, or telling the truth and facing the consequences head on.
When you make those types of decisions, you know whether you're choosing to do good or evil. You know whether it is what God would have you do, or against what God would have you do. But rarely do we actually think about the spiritual implications of even those clearly good or evil decisions, let alone the ones that are arguable. We normally only think about what we want - not what God wants. And unfortunately, many times what we want is more aligned with what Satan wants than what God wants. So many times when we made decisions that will make us happy (which seems to be most people's main goal in life), we end up choosing the side of evil rather than the side of good.
And I'll be the first to admit that I'm guilty of this far too often. So I'm asking God to strengthen me and keep his ways in my heart and on my mind so that when I make decisions, And I'm also making sure I read the bible or do devotions and pray every day. That way, God's word will always be on my mind and in my heart and I'll remember to consider the spiritual implications of my decision rather than just my own wants and desires. I love God and I want to do his will always. I want to choose good over evil every time!
What about you?
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