YOU HAVE TWO CHOICES
We serve a good, good Father and when we worship Him alone and follow His instructions, we will lack nothing in this world! Amen!
The last couple of weeks, I have been faced with having to make various choices, sometimes with not much time to decide the way in which to go. Part of life is to make choices every day and sometimes it leaves us with joy, happiness, satisfaction or it boosts our self-confidence. Other times, we make wrong choices, resulting in hurt, discomfort, disappointment, loss, uncertainty, sadness, many questions and a feeling of unworthiness.
God’s Word (the Bible) is full of love, joy, peace, hope, faith, sacrifice, forgiveness, patience, kindness, instructions, guidance, advice, comfort, direction, warnings, lessons learnt, the past, the present and the future. It however also tells us about pain, heartsore, sickness, lost time, disobedience and devastating results because of wrong decisions. To me, the Bible is THE TOOL to use in life’s very complicated journey, which is full of joy, but also has its share of pain. As life happens, we all travel on this journey with the reality that we need to realise that almost every moment, involves having to make choices with the impact of the choice we make, being life changing, whether good or bad.
Let us look at some of the different choices that people must make:
- Eat a balanced diet or choose the unhealthy option?
- Not feeling well in your body, either stay home or get up and give the day a go?
- Date someone or not?
- Marry someone or not?
- Forgive someone or not?
- Putting the past behind you, or allowing it to dictate your future?
- Continue to sit in bad company or get up and walk away?
- Knowing that to use drugs and abuse alcohol is wrong but you still use it as comfort or to avoid rejection.
- Go to church or not?
- Read the Bible or not?
- Buying something on credit that you don’t need or wait until you have the cash?
- Focus more on the desires or focus on the needs?
- Sleeping over at a friends or drive under the influence of alcohol?
- Leave early to drive to an appointment or push your time to the limits?
- Reach out and make a difference in your community or not?
- Buy a new car/cellphone/furniture etc. or not?
- Have children or not?
- Cancel a medical aid or not?
- Work late or not?
- Be honest or not?
- Flirt with someone else whilst married or in a relationship or not?
- And many more………….
Having to make so many choices in life, it is imperative that we start from a firm basis. God says in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” God and His ways comes first before our own. Therefore, there are ultimately two choices, no matter what the underlying choice is that needs to be made. The one directly impacts the other. Hence, you either choose God’s way, or the world’s way and reap the harvest from the one you have chosen. Galatians 6:6 – 8 says: “Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”. Let us use a few examples:
Example 1. Someone hurts you deeply and you struggle to forgive that person. Unforgiveness, is worldly which results in things such as sickness, negativity, anxiousness, fear, depression etc. These things start taking over your life and controls you to the degree that you feel you can’t take it anymore. However, you can receive freedom, healing, peace, joy, hope etc, when following God’s way which says:
- Mat 6:14 – 15…“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
- Isa 30:15…“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.””
- James 5:16…“Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
- Mark 11:22 – 26…“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Example 2. You keep on complaining about your weight and that your clothes do not fit anymore. You are tired and feel that you lack energy to get through the day. You know that you must eat healthier, balanced meals and must exercise regularly, but you still skip meals and rather snack on sugar loaded treats and have a take away for lunch. You know by exercising, it will help you to feel more energetic and lose extra weight, but you still don’t exercise regularly. The devastating results are because of the wrong choices you make. God gave you a healthy mind to discern between right and wrong. Choose a healthy lifestyle and reap the harvest of looking and feeling better, with loads more of energy to get through the day. Now, no one says that you can’t have a snack or take away, but keep it balanced to reap good results.
Example 3. You made a mistake at work. You can either keep quiet and hope no one finds out or you can be honest and tell your superior of the mistake, seeking help to fix the problem and to avoid it from happening again. Choosing the lie, you must remember that God says in Luke 8:17 “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” Nothing will remain hidden, so the truth will come out at some point in time and then it might just have devastating results. Rather pray about it and go and speak to your superior. It shows that you are open, honest, have integrity and have the interest of the organisation at heart. Yes, you will have to deal with fixing the mistake, but rather that, than allowing a lie to eat you up from the inside out.
Dear reader, although life happens and throws curveballs at us, we were given, by God, the gift of free choice. Instead of just blaming the world, the people in the world and God for things not working out in our lives, let us backtrack and look at the choices we made when the difficulties arose. Remember, you have two choices to make in approaching life, dealing with the past and deciding on the future. Whether you chose God’s way or the world’s way, there will be consequences. God’s way will result in blessings, even if you do not see it straight away, and the world’s way, will lead to self-destruction.
You have two choices! To choose God’s way (the Bible), means that you choose a life full of blessings (Deuteronomy 28:1 – 14).
Love in Christ, Princess K
