Choices

Posted by krisblaine on Oct 6, 2010 in Daily Bread | 3 comments

God gave us free will. The Bible is full of choices, starting with Eve’s choice to eat the forbidden fruit. We have the choice to follow Him or reject Him, to accept his Son as our Savior or take a pass on salvation.

He also knows that our hearts are weak and our feet are easily led astray, but he doesn’t want us to fail. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to make the right choices. He gave us his Son to atone for the times we fall short, and He gave us his Word to guide our choices.

The central truth of today’s verse is repeated time and time again in the Bible, from “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3), to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) Jesus calls this the first and greatest commandment. It’s kind of the “cheat sheet” of the Bible. If our hearts are full of God, there’s no room for any of the things that would lead us astray. I wish that would come easily for me, but it doesn’t. It’s a choice I have to make on a daily basis – to serve God with all of my heart.

The Isrealites had to choose between the Lord and the gods of the world in which they lived, the gods of the Amorites. We have to choose between the Lord and the gods of the world in which we live – material things, money, television, sex, power – the list is long.

In Romans 6:16, Paul writes, “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?” I don’t want to become a slave to the world. It doesn’t love me. It doesn’t have my best interests at heart. God does.