Have you made any bad choices in your life?
It’s hard to live too long without a rap sheet of choices that turn out in hindsight to be ill conceived.
Maybe it was a bad relationship.
Or bad judgment in your job.
Or a bad business deal
Or a bad grade in a class that you chose not to attend.
In answer to the question, “What is the greatest gift that God ever gave us?”, most people are likely to answer either “Life” or “Jesus”. Both of these are good answers but consider this,
Without choice neither of these matter.
Life without the ability and liberty to choose is not quality of life. It’s the life of a drone, a creature who only operates out of it’s programming. Without the ability and liberty to choose there is no reason to choose Christ for there would be no sin. Without the ability and liberty to choose there could be no love.
I have sometimes wondered why God put that tempting tree in the garden which has caused such great tragedy and pain and evil in the world. If He hadn’t done that then all would be well. But once again without that ability and liberty to choose we could not really know love and “God is love”.
Those of us who have chosen Jesus as our Lord have already changed the direction of our lives for eternity.
Those of us who have chosen to marry and bear children have changed our lives for the rest of our earthly lives.
Those of us who have chosen advanced education have changed our lives even further.
Those of us who have spoken into the lives of others to share God’s love for them have changed their lives forever.
There is incredible power in our choices. But as with all power and riches these can be squandered. How often have we heard stories of people who have won millions of dollars in the lottery and not too much later we hear that they have nothing left? We HAVE won the lottery. We have the ability and liberty to choose.
But what good would that be without great things to choose from? I can choose to rely on my own wits and wisdom and trial and error or We can choose God. I can tell you that I have tried my own way. Yeah I can get things and proven that I can lose things as well. But the real Holy Grail is to find happiness and peace. There is no lasting happiness or peace in things. In fact my pursuit of things leads to stress. I have to work more to pay for the things and pay the debts for things that I thought could make me happy.
But the greatest thing in life is that we can choose God. In God there is happiness and peace without regard to things. We are rich. Rich in happiness. Rich in peace. And Rich in Love.
Many things influence our choices
- Feelings
- Culture and family values
- Momentum
- Fear of consequences
Too often we abdicate the richness and power of our choices because we let these things make our choices for us. We can allow our feelings to prevent us from reaching out to people outside of our comfort zone. We can let our culture and family values prevent us from choosing to rise up out of a history of pain and even separation from God. We have friends in Spain that have been working diligently to bring the Gospel back to that country for years. However, individuals there who choose to follow Christ in a personal way are often disowned by their families because of the power of tradition and culture and family values.
We can let the momentum of life determine our choices in marriage, children, school, and work. How many people are working in a career that they fell into by association with people rather than viewing the universe of careers and picking one? How many people have married the one that was available at the right time rather than waiting for one that might be more suitable? How many people have had children at a time not of their choosing but now may have to drop out of school to care for them? We can miss out on the riches that God has for us because we are afraid to choose to step out in faith to share our faith or pray for someone or come to a growth group.
Many of us who have chosen to take Jesus as our Lord live as though that was the last choice we have to make. However, that may be far from the truth.
When Moses lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness God provided food daily . Each day the people had to go out to collect it. God could have allowed them to store up their food or even permanently relieve their hunger altogether. Instead each day they had to get up and choose to trust Him. Exodus
The Apostle, Paul, tells us that we must “walk by faith”. Each step in that walk is a choice. 2 Cor 5:7
He also suggests to us as he did to Timothy that we train ourselves in godliness like an athlete trains for an event. This involves choosing to “work out” and choosing to avoid negative activities such as some foods. 1 Tim 4:8;2 Tim 2:5;1 Cor 9:27
The choices that we have before us include these:
Will we make ourselves available to Him?
Will we trust Him to take care of our needs?
Will we trust Him to call us to do some risky things? I.e. Outreach, share our homes, share our faith, pray for healing for people in our workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods. Will we prioritize time with Him? Alone personal time, time in worship, time in fellowship with other believers.
Is today your day to choose?
Robert Frost, a great American poet wrote a famous poem that is often quoted on themes like this.
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
If you have not chosen Jesus as your Lord is today your day? Have you found lasting happiness and joy in the things of your life? Or do you need more things to find that? God gave you the greatest gift in your life, the ability and liberty to choose. He already loves you. Will you receive the riches of His relationship with you?
If you have already chosen Christ as your Lord are you living in the light of His presence each day? Are you still living a life of frustration and stress because you don’t want to bother God with your stuff? Would you choose Him again today and every day? He loves you and wants to be more real to you. You were created for friendship with the Living God. The Ministry Team is here for you too. They will pray for you to help you get started again in that daily walk with Him…to experience again the great power and riches in choosing Him everyday.
One of the great heroes of the Bible put it this way.
Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Josh 24:15
No comments:
Post a Comment