Have you ever thought about how many choices you make in a day? Think about that for just a minute – we wake up and choose what to wear, what to eat for breakfast, whether to exercise or not, what we’ll listen to on the radio on our way to work or school, what TV shows we’ll watch, how we’ll spend our time, which movie we’ll see at the theater. We make a lot of choices every day. Some of those choices are simple, cut and dry decisions. But others have an effect on us that we may not even realize. Many times as Christians, when we are faced with a choice, we are choosing whether or not to compromise our beliefs, values and morals.

Now that you’re thinking about the compromises you’ve made (maybe today, maybe this week, maybe over your lifetime), what do you think those compromises have cost you? Sometimes it’s obvious. For instance, today I chose to skip my workout. What does that cost me? Well, I could look at it a couple of ways. Today, it doesn’t cost me too much. So, I didn’t work out……there’s always tomorrow, right? But what if I compromise tomorrow too? What if I compromise for the rest of the week? What if those “little” compromises continue indefinitely? Over the long term it can cost me a lot, like good health, energy, confidence, money lost for prepaid classes, possible new friends that I could have made had I gone to work out, ability to build on a good decision to exercise because one good decision typically leads to another. You see, we tend to look at the momentary costs without seeing the big picture.

So let’s talk about choices that have much bigger implications. The kind that if we choose to compromise, they affect our soul. What if money gets tight and you decide (just this once) to not tithe on your paycheck so you can get caught up. Then you have car trouble and have to pay $200 to get it fixed so you don’t tithe the next paycheck so you can cover the unexpected expense. And then what if something else goes wrong and your spending snowballs and you have to quit tithing just to keep up with the bills?

Or, what if you’ve been dating a guy for a long time and the two of you love each other and have talked openly about getting married? And what if one night he asks you to compromise your decision to wait until marriage? In the moment you’re thinking “we’re going to get married anyway.” And then a few weeks later you find out he’s been cheating on you and you end the relationship. What do you think those compromises cost your soul?

Maybe you’ve made some bad decisions in the past that have had an impact on your soul. Maybe right now you’re making a daily choice to do something that is slowly causing damage that you may not even realize. Sometimes we know there will be consequences to our choices. But what if we don’t realize that the choice we’re making in the moment is truly hurting us? How are we supposed to know what to do and how to make the right decisions without paying the high cost of negative consequences?

Here’s the great part – God didn’t just leave us on our own to figure it all out. As believers, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit who is our Helper and our Counselor in our times of need. In those moments when we are facing the choice to compromise or not, He is there to guide us in that decision if we’ll simply ask. He will also convict us when we’ve already made the choice to compromise so that we can stop whatever we’re doing that is damaging our soul.

God also gave us His word as an instruction manual so we’ll know the kind of things that can hurt us that we may have been unaware of. We don’t have to figure this out on our own. There are options and safeguards in place to keep us from the consequences of compromise and that is most definitely good news!

But what if you are already suffering the consequences of compromises from your past? God can bring healing where damage has already occurred. Ask Him through prayer to heal the hurts in your soul caused by bad decisions. Ask Him to give victory over the defeats of your past then trust in His power to heal you.

So, my question is, what compromises are you making that may seem like no big deal? And the bigger question is what are those “small” compromises really costing you? And finally –  what are you going to do about it?