Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (MSG)
I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Life is FULL of choices. It seems too many choices to ever be certain that we are making the right one all of the time. Our mind runs in circles with so many options that it often runs amuck. We want to make good ones and do the right thing. Most people really do have good intentions when it comes to deciding how to use their time, energy, resources and money. Who doesn’t want to have a good life? I think we all do. But when I think about my life now – I want a God life. Not a religious existence but a life defined by my encounter with God through Jesus Christ. To some this sounds so “holy” and “righteous” – it is. But these words come across as religious when they are not – I am holy because God is holy. I have been saved and set apart not as some iconic ritualistic meaningless utensil in a church, synagogue or temple somewhere but consecrated as a Child of the Living God and filled with His Spirit so that I can become all that He created me to be in the first place. There is freedom in holiness to release the creative power and energy of God in our life once again now that sin no longer stunts and stifles such growth in our life. I am free to live in right-standing with God if I want to. I do not have to. But I get to choose between living a blessed life and allowing the consequences of sin give me what I deserve. I have the ability as I walk with Jesus in righteousness to have life in every situation and circumstance that I face no longer is the impossible a place that I am welcome because now all things are possible with God. The craziest part of this choice is that there is nothing that I have to do. I am not bound by some long list of rules and regulations like an arranged marriage where I have no say. I get to do what I want to do when I want to do it. So what’s the catch? There isn’t one really. There are no “wrong” choices with God if you choose life. How do I choose life? You choose life when you decide to love God, take His Advice because He knows what is best, and firmly embrace Him. For those people who decide that God is their life, the sky is the limit to your life. As long as you live, breathe, wake up, walk, talk, work and so on – you will have made a great choice.
Matthew 6:25-26 (MSG)
If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
I like how it reads in this version, “If you decide for God, living a life of God-Worship, it follows that”. It puts our life in proper context. He chose us from the beginning. But it is in our choice of the Lord that the change is put into effect. When you ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior – you insinuate a change of direction called repentance that turns from sin and chooses life. You facilitate that change as you leave your old life and cling to your new one. When our daughter got married, she left our house and moved in with her husband who moved her all the way to New Hampshire. What if she moved across town into the apartment but when it came time to move to another state decided not to go with her spouse? Inevitably their marriage would suffer and soon end unless he decided to stay or she decided to go. When two people move in different directions their relationship will suffer unless they go together. So does our relationship with God the Father and Jesus. If we do not go with them, we are moving away from them. Less I digress…
When we decide to go with God as our choice for life, we now must trust Him with the details of our life. Just as we discuss what we do and where we go with our parents and then our spouse, we must stay connected with God in our daily decisions. First I trusted my parents to point me in the right direction and give me good advice. I, then chose whether or not to listen to them. In most cases, going on my own led to some kind of trouble or problem that my inexperience did not anticipate. As a married adult with children (young and old), I must consult to with my life partner, my husband. We share the responsibility of this family and the decisions we make no longer impact just us by each other and our children. We must walk together and go the same way to benefit our family otherwise there is stress and contention.
Moving onward, we worry about the things that we are not certain about. The Lord has promised to be our Savior, Healer, Deliverer, Provider, Comforter, Peace, and so much more. In all things He provides what we need when we need it. Whatever it is? The things we are most concerned about that produce worry, anxiety and stress are the very things that we have decided our outside of God’s Power and Ability. Our faith is not stretched far enough to cover those areas and we do not believe based on what we see that the Lord is doing His Job. Don’t get mad at me! I am in the same boat as you! We must step over the edge of all those radical and consuming emotions to say in this moment for this day – “Today God I choose you!” It is in the moment of saying AND believing that He is MY God and everything that He promised to be that I take a step back in the right direction and closer to Him! There I find all those things that I thought He was withholding but was really just waiting on me to decide I wanted!
Matthew 6:33-34 (MSG)
Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
To steep the way it is used in the Message translation means to saturate or immerse. People think those who dare to believe and have radical faith are a bit crazy. They just don’t understand. Most of the time, I don’t understand it either. You will never know and understand the choice you have made and all of its benefit when you choose Jesus until you steep, immerse and saturate your life in God-Reality. He will only become real when you know Him more and more and more. Intimacy is essential. That is a relationship shared between two people and no one else. God wants you to know Him personally. Jesus lives inside of you and it will help once you begin to identify His Presence in your life and learn to live with Him. God-Initiative are all those things God has done, is doing and intends on doing in our life. He has a plan with a future and hope. (Jeremiah 29:11) It will just take my whole heart to get it. (Jeremiah 29:13) He works every detail of my life for His Good and His Glory. (Romans 8:28) There are no wrong turns or missteps with God. As long as I love Him with all of my heart, He works it all out. No worries. He perfects our way along the way. (Psalm 138:8) None of this is a surprise, our life is pre-recorded. (Psalm 139:16) I could go on and on about God and His Work in our life but He wants to show you Himself. The Lord wants you to see Him Face-to-face. And then there is God-Provisions. When we link our household accounts to God’s Provision, we will prosper. Sowing and reaping, planting and harvesting are very effective Kingdom principles. Imagine marrying a millionaire when living paycheck to paycheck. He offers to combine accounts giving you access to every bit of his fortune, but you look at your account greedily holding on to what little you have left so you reject the offer. Are you kidding me right now? Who would do such a dumb thing? (Let’s just let that sink in for a minute.) We do it every day when God offers us everything we need, what we want and better than we could think of but we choose to take care of our own affairs because we are afraid to lose what little we have. Someone once told me that some people would rather sleep with the devil rather than take a chance on an angel. I think I get it now.
I Thessalonians 5:16-18 (MSG)
Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
Well then (spoken with a knowing sigh). God has laid it out pretty plain for me today. I have been haggling over some choices in my mind and giving them too much consideration considering who I belong to and what He wants to do for me. I can be confident in all my choices today because I belong to Jesus. I have given my entire life over to God. All of it. There are times when faced with choices, decisions and options that the enemy will try to convince me (and you) that bear more weight than they should. The only decision that I must make each day is to that God is my God and that Jesus is my Savior and Lord. The rest is up to Him… all of it!
Thank you God for this life. It’s a good life. It’s a God life. It holds every opportunity I need and no opposition that I cannot overcome. I will rejoice in you today and be cheerful no matter what. I will take run all my thinking by you today because I want to know what You have to say about the matter. Thank you God that no matter what happens – You will never let me go. I know this is the way you want me to live! So today I choose you! Tomorrow, too! And the next day…and the next day…and so on…and so on… for the rest of my days I choose you!
Pure Devotion 