The Choice Is Yours

Life is about choices. You may even say life is choices. Sure, we all have inborn senses which make up our instincts and intuitions. Our Creator, however, has also made us with free will choice-making capabilities. This “free will field”, if you will, can become a field of harvest or a battleground depending on our choices.

The devil certainly knows this all too well. Apparently even the angels have a certain free will, else the devil would not have been able to fall from grace as he did. This makes him even more aware of our own weaknesses and loves to capitalize on it.

“Common sense” seems to be more of an inherent aptitude with varying degrees in each person. “Experience”, as we all know, is really the great teacher for all of us…hopefully learning from our mistakes and successes. “Wisdom” could be classified as a fusion of common sense amplified by experience.

Why all these definitions and distinctions? Because life is about choices—and I believe it is extremely important to understand just how critical of an area this is for our lives…especially the Christian life.

Let me tell you a story:

A man was walking down the street and noticed his friend in the middle of a four lane highway just standing there; it appeared he was praying although he couldn’t be certain what was exactly going on. Between the passing of cars he yelled at his friend to get his attention. Still, he seemed to simply have his head bowed down in a prayerful manner. After several more shouts he finally got his attention and his friend looked his way. He looked around, waited for an opening in traffic, and trotted on over to the side of the road next to his friend. His friend, bewildered at his actions, asked, “What in the world were you doing out there? You could have been hit; didn’t you realize the danger?” He responded, “That’s exactly why I was praying. I went out in the middle of the street knowing God would protect me from the danger.” His friend somberly asked, “Wouldn’t it have been better to just not go out there in the first place?”

For some reason, many Christians follow this same pattern when it comes to life’s choices. We know full well that God has us in His hands and we can rely on His protection. This doesn’t mean we should knowingly put ourselves in situations where we need to test that protection. We are human and, therefore, flawed. We will be taken in by temptation if the circumstances lend themselves to play on our weaknesses.

Even when Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil Luke 4:13 states that “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” Re-read that last part…’left him until an opportune time’. This is exactly why we must be vigilant in our prayers to God. The devil will always seek us out to make us stumble; if not this time, he’ll try again later.

I pray for each and every person that they move ever closer to their heavenly Father and pray for the choices they make in life. God will never leave or abandon you no matter what circumstance your choices lead you to…but it so much more glorious to walk in the light than to pray for redemption. Our choices in life either give evil forces a foothold to work with or they eliminate them…the choice really is yours.

Blessings!

Greg Morton
© June 17, 2010

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Pray for Me…Maybe

I came across some country song lyrics the other day which made me take a step back. The song is called “Pray for You”, written and sung by Jaron & The Long Road To Love. At first the wit and humor of the song caught my attention, but after I listened to the song a couple of times…it really started to hit me. Meanings to what we all say in life really are a crucial part of our communication process.

“…Sometimes we get angry but we must not condemn
Let the good Lord do his job, you just pray for them -

I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill
I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill
And knocks you in the head like I'd like to
I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls
I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls
I pray all your dreams never come true
Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you”

Now I have people in my life always telling me they will—or are—praying for me. From this moment on I’ll most likely smile, even if just on the inside, every time I hear that. Chances are it will be very clear as to the meaning and motive of what that person is saying, but it does give me pause as to how we can say what people want to hear, even if our intention is anything but honorable.

As most of you know, I love a good twist on a concept as much as the next guy and I applaud this writer for doing just that. I would like to take it one step further, however. With all seriousness…we should always be very clear when we communicate with others, especially when we step into the role of spiritually comforting, petitioning, uplifting or advising them. When we say, “I’ll be praying for you” don’t make it a flippant or passive comment, make it real…or don’t say it. When it comes to the accountability of a Christian we should always take every situation to heart. Jesus Christ modeled this for us all too well; with a grueling physical outcome, but a glorious spiritual result. We need to remember that our purpose here on earth is to spread the gospel, plain and simple. Within that commission we need to continually fortify each other with support, guidance and prayer. Just remember to pray with the love of Christ in your heart and not fall prey to some country satire.

Greg Morton
© June 11, 2010

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