Choosing
December 4, 2017 - Prayer Warriors
Tired, exposed, worthless. Life often calls us these. God calls us restored, protected, loved. If God’s words for us are so welcoming, so wonderful, why do we not choose HIS version of who we are? Why do we not choose him? The answer to this deep yet simple question, can be summed up in one word: Sin. Sin is choosing to serve ourselves and not God. Choosing one thing instead of another brings the chosen thing close to us while simultaneously pushing the rejected item further away. Choosing ourselves over God pushes God away. Pretty simple, really.
How then, do we choose God? It is easy to say, “I love God”, or “I know Jesus,” but knowing God in your head is just the beginning, it is still not a choice for yielding to God. Jesus invites us simply to “Follow me”. In John 12: 26 , Jesus invites us and then goes one step further to tell us that we will be honored by the God for that choice:
“If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, The Father will honor him. (ESV). In other words, we will be restored, protected, loved and so much more.
And still we often reject that invite to follow Christ. It’s like being told that it is going to rain but making a choice NOT to carry an umbrella. That choice against the umbrella says “I reject that it will rain and am acting on the belief that what you say is real is not actually real, not the truth.” In fact, it really says “I have made a choice to get wet,” even if not thought out in those specific terms.
We do not believe something into being true. We believe something because it is already true. The truth is that there is one God who is in control and one savior, Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us. We are invited to follow Christ and be transformed by that relationship into more than we could ever be on our own. Every day we get multiple opportunities to choose what we believe and who we follow.
Joshua 24: 15, reminds us:
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (NIV).
So what will your choice be? Will you be restored, protected, loved and even more, in the arms of the most powerful God? We all decide through every choice we make, each and every day we draw breath.
Prayer for this week: Lord help us examine our choices: The things we view online, the programs on TV, the books we read, our relationships and the comments we speak and post. Do these draw us to you or the world? Do they encourage and bring hope to those around us? Do they speak life and healing into a hurting world? Help us to choose you, even when we feel pulled toward our own desires. Strengthen our weaknesses and help us be the object of healing and hope to a hurting world. In Jesus name we ask this and thank you.