Navigating Life’s Choices with the Holy Spirit

I have a small, embarrassing confession. I hope I’m not alone. When I’m staying at a hotel, I struggle to remember which way to go to find the elevator. I walk out the door of my room, look both ways down the hall and just guess. I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right. The worse guess is when I take off in one direction and about 5 doors down, I decide I chose wrong. I about face, walk back past my door and head the other way only to reach the end of the hall and realize I was right the first time.

You know, life can be like a hotel hallway. Sometimes I feel I’m standing at the door trying to decide which way to go. We are often faced with the choice to love or to hate, to be selfless or selfish, to judge or accept. It is our choice. You can look down the hallway both directions, but eventually you have to make a decision.  There have been times where I have been hurt deeply by someone’s comments or actions. I then had to decide how to reciprocate those actions. These decisions are not easy and in my case, cannot be done without help from the Holy Spirit.

Back to the hotel hallway, my go to if available is to follow Scott out the door and follow his direction. Of course this only works when he is with me, but guess what? In real life, the Holy Spirit is right there with us at all times to guide and direct us. The Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us with those decisions and give us the strength we need if we will follow the leading.

In Galatians 5, Paul tells the Galatians they can be led by the Spirit. Specifically, in verse 16 he says, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” He goes on to explain that the flesh and the Spirit are in conflict with each other. It is like standing in the hotel hallway deciding which way to go. We may want to hurt as deeply as we’ve been hurt. We may want to judge others for the decisions they make. However, all we have to do is follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to fight those fleshly desires.

Interestingly if we are listening and seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we make the right decision and choose wisely to begin with. However, other times we go on our own and make a selfish decision or act in an unloving way only to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit that what we did was not in alignment with God’s righteousness. John 16:8, “And when he (Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of its sin.”

I want to take time and talk about the difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit and is about a behavior that needs to change or be corrected. Condemnation is from man or Satan and says you are a bad person. That is not true. You are a child of God, made in his image. You are not a bad person. However, everyone makes bad decisions from time to time that need to be corrected. That is why the Holy Spirit was sent to help us.

Maybe you are standing in one of life’s hotel hallways right now trying to decide how to respond or whether to spread untruths to make yourself look better. Choose love, choose kindness, chose the way the Holy Spirit would lead you.