Deuteronomy 30:19-20
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I
have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore, choose
life, that both you and your seed may live.
That you may love the Lord your God and that you may obey his
voice, and that you may cling unto him, for he is your life and the length of
your days, that you may dwell in the land.
We make decisions every day. Sometimes we just don’t make
the right ones. In some cases it is a clear choice of what we should do and easy
to choose. We take that choice and things work out well. But other times, it is
not so clear and we make the wrong decision and things don’t work out so well.
And then we wonder how we got in such a mess. Well it is because we made the
wrong choice. So how do we know to make the right choice? We need to seek the
Lord and ask Him. But be prepared to believe, listen and do what He says or you
will not receive.
James 1:5-8 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to
all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts
is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from
the Lord; He is double minded and unstable in all of his ways.
This is a powerful passage of scripture. It affects every area
of your life. We must go before the Lord, in faith and without doubt that He
knows what is best for us. We can’t go thinking “Well I will see what He
says and then decide if I want to do it.” That won’t work. We either have to
believe that what He tells us is the only answer, or nothing will work.
In life we are constantly thinking we can do it on our own.
There is nothing further from the truth. On our own, we can’t succeed. On our
own, we will have no will power. On our own, we will not make quality decisions.
On our own, we will fail. But thank God, as Christians, we are not on our own.
We have God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help us.
We don’t need to be tossed like a wave of the sea. We can be
solid as a rock and make decisions that will stand and will change our lives. I know that I have tried to do things on my own, and I failed
miserably. And sometimes, just gave up. But whenever I made a decision, with the
Holy Spirit’s help, I succeeded. We need to make quality decisions, from which there is no turning back.
If we say…I sure wish I could….or I sure would like to….or
I am going to try…. We will fail every time. But when we have the Holy Spirit as our help we can say I am going to do it! And then do it!
And no matter how hard it may seem sometimes to follow
through, you will not go back on that decision. If you feel you can’t do it,
then rely on the Holy Spirit. If you ever take back your decision to let Him
help you, you will fail.
"But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts
is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind."
Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from
the Lord; He is double minded and unstable in all of his ways. I don’t want to be double minded and unstable in all my
ways. Do you? If we do not make a decision to let the Lord take over, this will happen.
If you examine your life, you will see that this is true. That
we have problems sticking to anything. We leave a trail of unfinished
projects that will never get done. But as we begin to discipline our lives, under the direction
of the Holy Spirit, the rest of our life will fall into line. As we start to
make good quality decisions about our life, we will see a change in the way we
do things. We will not be satisfied with the way we used to be. Our whole
life will take a turn and people will start to notice the change.
Your whole attitude about life will change as well. You will
see things different. You won’t be negative. You will be positive and ready to
encourage others instead of always being in need of encouragement. You will become the one that others look to for help.
Does this all happen overnight? Well of course not! But making
the decision to “Choose Life” is the first step. God did not want us to just
accept his plan of salvation and then flounder through life, barely making it.
Dependant on others and incapable of making anything of our life. He brought us
into His family to make us a success in everything we do. He wants us to shine
as beacons in this world of darkness, not get lost in it. He wants us to prosper
in everything we do
3 John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou may prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.
Is your soul prospering? Are you in good health? Both
physically and mentally? If not then you need to examine the kind of decisions
you are making. This includes every area of your life. Eating, drinking, sleeping, exercise. What you watch, read, what you hear, what you say.
We need to be selective in all these areas if we want to
prosper in every area of our lives. If we are not, then we will not live the
quality of life we should. What do you spend time doing the most? Is it quality living?
My mother always used to say this “Would you want to be doing that when Jesus comes back?”
That is a good gauge to go by. But if you would not want to be
caught by him doing it…then don’t do it…because here is here all the time
with you.
We need to attend to the word of God and what it says
Proverbs 4:20-27 My son, attend to my words; incline your ear unto my sayings.
Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart For
they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep
your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away
from thee a deceitful mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let your eyes
look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you. Ponder the path of
your feet, and let all your ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor
to the left: remove your foot from evil
The word of God should be in our hearts and we should listen
to what it says all the time. The issues of life come from the heart. What is in
there, will come out. Either physical, emotional or spiritual, we are affected
by what we put in, no matter what people say. We will live what we learn. Let’s
make it the word. Put away anything that is contrary to the word of God. Nothing
should come out of your mouth that is not glorifying to the Lord. Look only to
Jesus, not to the left or to the right. He is the answer for all that you need.
We need to choose his path for our feet to walk on. If we do this we will be
established and choose life. It is the only sure foundation, and will keep us
from the path of the evil one.
II Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue:
God has given us every thing we need to live this life.
There
is nothing we need that he has not already provided for us. We just need to tap
into it
