Home » Programs » A World of Difference » Choosing Your Lifestyle

Choosing Your Lifestyle

In Titus 2:11-12 we read these words from the Apostle Paul, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” [NIV]

Not everyone lives the same way with the same values, interests, commitments and behaviours, but few of us think very much about our lifestyle. It’s just the way we live. People typically don’t consciously choose their lifestyle so much as adopt it. We are presented with the way our parents live and in our early years accept it as normal and normative. Then we develop a broader circle of friends and realize that other families have different patterns of interacting. They have different values and different traditions.

This exposure either reinforces our adoption of our birth family’s ways or causes us to reject them for something else. As children watching other children in their home environments, we want the good things they have and would seek to avoid the things we don’t like about the way their families live.

As we get older, another factor comes into play. We begin to think consciously about what works and what doesn’t, what’s helpful and what isn’t, and we consequently make some judgment calls. Parents are pleasantly startled when their children thank them that they raised them the way they did. As some children mature, they recognize the benefits of structure, discipline, and order within family relationships. This sets the stage for appropriate evaluation of other options they face as they grow older and are exposed to more and more choices.

Unfortunately, not everyone learns to reflect on the choices they face and the consequences of the decisions they make. Following the path of least resistance, they pursue a lifestyle which favours pleasure and comfort over one of meaning and significance.

Christians have an external source to help them reflect on and evaluate lifestyle choices that arise. Paul talks about the grace of God which teaches us to be responsive to God while we live in a world that trys to tell us what things are important. The Spirit of God brings this grace into our lives in an active positive way, empowering us be self-controlled and in relationship with God in spite of the prevailing perceptions and behaviours adopted by the people around us.

Paul looked at his own life before He encountered the Lord Jesus Christ and evaluated it as garbage compared to all that he had as a result of that relationship.

When it comes to choosing your lifestyle, there’s a world of difference between the options from which we select based on our natural inclinations and those we’ll opt for based on the grace of God.

Ron Hughes
© June 2008