If you had a crystal ball that could show you your future, what do you think you would see? What current choices or decisions would you make to try to change where your life is leading?

In “Do You Even Know Me Anymore?” Mark Schultz sings of how the decisions of life can lead us to a difficult and undesired place. We may have dreams and make different plans, but we can end up feeling empty and disillusioned.

That’s tragic. But it could be our story, just as it was Lot’s.

In the last record of his life, we find Lot living in a cave. And in that dingy den, his daughters tricked him into committing incest with them (Genesis 19:30-36). Lot became for all time the symbolic picture of a person who has received salvation in Jesus, “but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” (1 Corinthians 3:15). Though he has eternal life with God ahead, he has nothing to look back on but wasted years, tinged with regret.

How did he end up there? In Genesis 13:8-11, Lot gained his independence and ran with it. He moved out of Abraham’s shadow and then had to choose where to settle down. He chose the Jordan Valley, for it was “like the garden of the LORD or the beautiful land of Egypt” (Genesis 19:10).

Not a good choice. Pastor Ray Stedman explains, “[Lot] thought he could have the garden of the Lord plus the riches of Egypt. He thought he could worship God while still having all the luxuries and cultural advantages of a pagan, godless city.” And for a season, Lot did have the best of both worlds. But it didn’t last.

Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). The only way to avoid a life of regret is to live each day for Him. In Jesus, we find all the wisdom we need for right choices.

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Matthew 5:1-16