Wednesday April 27, 2011

Read Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Living victoriously begins with the choices we make. Some of those choices are big and have far reaching ramifications - the school we send our kids to, the job we take, the person we choose to marry and so on. But these are not the choices I am talking about, important as they are.

Each and every single day we make a million and one choices that, though they seem insignificant and somewhat irrelevant, have far reaching implications about how we will shine the light of Jesus and the degree to which we will live in victory.

Let me illustrate. I search for a lot of pictures on my office computer. Every now and then (even with words like worship, praise etc) a picture of a naked or semi naked lady will appear in the thumb nails. At that point I have a choice to make. I can delete the screen or sit and stare at this beautiful woman. No one will know what choice I make... except God. If I choose the former, I am choosing to walk with integrity. I can then talk to the other staff and interact with them with full and complete integrity. I know that God is pleased and will bless my choices. If, however, I choose to stare and lust I am sinning before God and have lost integrity. I can no longer speak to others and mix with integrity. I have created a barrier between myself and God and between myself and those around me. At that point I need to make a choice. Even before I get to searching for pictures, I need to make choices. Do I set the screen filter to high, medium or low? Do I turn my computer around so everyone can see what’s on it? Do I put extra filters on my computer? These are not admissions of guilt but wise considerations to make good, wholesome, God honouring choices.

Each and every day you have a squid-zillion choices to make. What do I think about now that I have a spare 10 minutes? How do I approach that lady I don’t really like? How do I speak to my son or daughter? Do I honour my parents or disobey them and do what I want? Do I speed to get to the meeting on time? Do I run the red light? Do I watch that TV show that has naked people and regular sex scenes? Do I yell at my spouse or forgive her? Do I put that person down or build her up? As an exercise carry a pen and paper with you (or an iphone etc) for the entire day and jot down all the choices you make in a single day. At the end of the day, analyse each choice to see if it was godly or not. What does it tell you about the choices you are making?

The wonderfully reassuring truth is that God has given you the ability and the power to choose that which pleases Him. You have the God given power to choose wisely and to say no to unwise, ungodly options. You do not have to go down that same old path again. You do not have to sin. It’s sobering to remember that when you sin, satan did not make you sin. You were not forced to sin by the circumstances. You chose to sin. I chose NOT to sin. BUT you can choose NOT to sin as well.

Prayer:-

V Read 1 John 1:9 and confess some of the bad choices you have made. Spend time rejoicing in God’s forgiveness and purification.

Pray that your brothers and sisters in the congregation would be making godly choices as well.