As we go through life, we sometimes make bad choices and when we do there are consequences to those bad choices. At our children’s elementary school, detention time was called “choices.” The name tried to drive home the point that your actions are a choice.
In a spiritual sense, the Lord wants us to learn from our poor choices. We can confess our sins to God by admitting our wrongdoing and asking for forgiveness. We can also ask the Lord to give us the strength not to make that poor choice in the future.
In our story of Moses, the Pharaoh had made one bad choice after another. His bad choices not impacted him, but his entire nation. The Pharaoh could have humbled himself after the first plague and asked God to forgive him. He could have pointed the people of Egypt to God and changed an entire nation. He had the free will to do so, but he did not. He chose to harden his heart and suffer the consequences of one plague after another.
Exodus 12:29 And that night at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died. [1]
How about you? Have you ever made a poor choice and suffered from it? Did God use it for good by turning you in a different direction? I have met people who at one time were drug addicts, but God transformed them. Now they are helping others who are drug addicts. God even uses our negative experiences.
In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son who made some very poor choices, yet God used those bad choices to lead him back to his father. If you have made some poor choices, the Lord has not given up on you. As you listen to His still small voice, He is calling you back to Himself. Don’t forget the Lord loves you and wants the best for you! He is always there for us no matter how deep a pit we have dug for ourselves. He is just a prayer away. Our ministry loves to connect with our readers. If you have a prayer request or a comment, please let us know. Also, if this devotional helped you, please share it with others. To hear more about poor choices and how they can affect us, listen here: https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/series/the-footsteps-of-moses/passover-then-and-now
[1] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ex 12:29–30). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.