Choices, Choices
Life is full of choices. Some are more important than others. Choosing to eat the right food is important. Choosing between which shirt to wear not so. The decision taken by parliament last week not to support military action is Syria was life changing for many – especially those not making the decision.
There are, day by day, choices to be made; decisions to be taken.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15 Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster. 16-18 I am commanding you to be loyal to the Lord, to live the way he has told you, and to obey his laws and teachings. You are about to cross the Jordan River and take the land that he is giving you. If you obey him, you will live and become successful and powerful.
On the other hand, you might choose to disobey the Lord and reject him. So I’m warning you that if you bow down and worship other gods, you won’t have long to live.
19 Right now I call the sky and the earth to be witnesses that I am offering you this choice. Will you choose for the Lord to make you prosperous and give you a long life? Or will he put you under a curse and kill you? Choose life! 20 Be completely faithful to the Lord your God, love him, and do whatever he tells you. The Lord is the only one who can give life, and he will let you live a long time in the land that he promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Faith is not something we fall into. It is not something we inherit. It is not something that automatically happens. It is something we make a choice about – a deliberate decision.
I love that God gives us a choice. We are not coerced into trusting him. He doesn’t make us follow him. Belief is not compulsory – it is a conviction we can choose or leave. Rejecting God was, and is, a possibility. Which makes choosing him something far more precious.
Neither is it a choice once for all. Following God, or not, is an ongoing choice, moment by moment – to respond to him or not, to follow him or not, to choose his ways or not…
We are implored to choose life, to be faithful to God, to love him, and do what he asks; but the opposite is always possible. The choice is ours.
Today, what is your choice and my choice?
To choose God’s ways, or to turn from them?
Thank you Lord,
that you give me a choice
it is up to me.
you do not compel me to follow you,
but invite me to go your way.
Forgive me Lord,
the times I make the wrong choices,
when going the other way
seems more exciting or interesting,
when I get distracted.
Help me to see the truth
of life your way
being the best way,
the true way,
the path to life.
Today
and everyday
help me to choose life,
to choose you,
to love you,
to live your ways.
Pam's Perambulation 