Four Life-Changing Questions

Youth is a relative term. To a 15-year-old, I’m an old person. But to a 90-year-old, I’m actually kind of young. When you stop and think about it, we’re all going to be a year older next year.

We’ll make decisions in January that will be played out by next Christmas. You decide the evening of your life by the morning of it. The stand you make today will determine what kind of stand you make tomorrow. It isn’t something mystical that you have nothing to say about.

Maybe the Lord has shown you an area in your life where you’ve been compromised spiritually. Often, it’s the little things that bring us down, not the outright sins. It’s the little things that ultimately lead to the big things. The so-called gray areas ultimately will lead us to those black-and-white areas.

Here’s the wrong question to ask about the things you’re not sure about: Can I still do this and be a Christian?

Rather, when you come to one of those areas and wonder whether it’s acceptable to God and whether it’s right for you to do, ask yourself four questions:

Does it build me up spiritually?
Does it bring me under its power?
Do I have an uneasy conscience about it?
Could it cause someone to stumble in their faith?

The apostle Paul wrote, “For whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23 NKJV). Another translation puts it this way: “If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning” (NLT).

You decide what principles you will live by and what road you will take. Why would you want to allow a potential area of compromise in your life? Every day we make hundreds, even thousands, of decisions as to whether we will sow to the flesh or sow to the Spirit. Choose wisely.