I've been praying about it a lot, and recently God revealed something to me through my mom's wise words that helped a lot. A lot of times, we wonder if doing a certain thing would be wrong. Is it wrong to say certain things? Is it wrong to date this guy? Is it wrong to watch this show? Is it wrong to go to this place?
I think Satan probably gets a little giddy when we ask these questions. Don't forget- Satan is the father of all lies (John 8:44), the tempter (Matthew 4:3), and the evil one (Matthew 13:19). He loves to twist the truth and use that to convince us that it isn't wrong to do a lot of things. He is happy to to deceive us and make us think that it isn't so bad to do things that aren't in God's will.
Maybe what we should be asking ourselves, instead, is if what we're doing is right. The other night, I was seriously doubting my judgment one of the big decisions that I made recently- unfortunately, I was disregarding the guidance that God had given me towards making that decision and the peace that He gave when I finally made it. I desperately wanted to go back and change my mind. Satan had firmly convinced me that it wouldn't be wrong. But then, I turned the questions that I was asking around and asked myself this: Would it please God if I changed my mind about this? Would He sit back and smile and say, "Well done, my daughter, you have done my will"?
I knew that the answer was no. Even though God wouldn't stop loving me, I knew that I would not be pleasing my Heavenly Father if I changed my mind.
I'm not saying that this is the magic solution to making the right decisions. What I am saying, though, is that we shouldn't strive to make ourselves happy and just avoid doing the wrong things. Satan can convince us all day long that what we're doing is "not so bad." He can use God' promises of salvation and unconditional love to make us think that it's okay to seek pleasure for the desires of our flesh instead of for the glory of God (Romans 8:8 says differently). But the truth is that we are to strive- with our entire hearts, minds, and souls- to please the Lord our God. There is no greater goal, and there is no greater joy than that which comes when we are living to please God.
For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
-Ephesians 5:8-10 (NLT)
