We encounter life's challenges one at a time. Sometimes they come at us slowly and sometimes it seems, in rapid succession. We conquer them... or sometimes we don't. But I don't think that it's our win / loss record in dealing with those challenges that the Lord is looking at.
At every point in our lives, we make decisions and at every point of decision the truth of our heart's intention is exposed to the God who's watching. Deception, greed, lust, anger, drunkenness and many more are readily accessible options that the enemy makes available on the table for consideration at the moment of decision. The Lord's given us instruction to choose from His own table of options and yet we're also free to choose as we will. But make no mistake, choosing from the enemy's table of options comes at a price...
Romans 1:28-32 (NLT) 28 "Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."
Making choices is something we do most every moment of every day. We may not think of it as choosing from one table or another, but if you think about it, in reality we do. Both our God and His enemy have very clear and different standards. One offers a diet that leads to health and contentment, while the other offers dining options that while made attractive to our flesh, erode our health and cause spiritual cancer.
Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT)
19 "When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God."
The God that created us knows what's good for us and because He loves us, he's given us options that'll keep us healthy and lead to our thriving spiritually, though they may sometimes not look as outwardly appealing. The enemy's a false advertiser. He has been from the beginning of time. He serves up a menu of corrosive, slow poison and a little instant death. He's a murderer of God's children, given a temporary reprieve from the final execution of his own sentence because it serves God's purpose in testing us while He watches. But while He watches, Father God's given us some powerful help - a dietary expert and awesome life coach. If we'll listen and tune our hearts in to Him, the Holy Spirit in us, helps us make those right choices.
Galatians 5:22-25 (NLT) 22 "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives."
Our choices demonstrate something clearly that the Lord sees unfailingly, while we may not even give it a conscious thought. We either make those choices in ways that are obedient to Him because we love Him, or we choose the temporary satisfaction of our own will and desires. Make no mistake - it's a love choice. We love Him enough to obey Him, or we love having our own way more. It cements the proof of what we might have said to Him with our words, or it proves something else while he observes the evidence.
Take notice of the fact that Lucifer made the fatal mistake of loving himself and his own way more. I can't help but wonder if that isn't why we're given the freedom of choice - to see what we prove to be true. I believe that God created us for relationship with Him - to love and be loved by Him, and that if we fail that purpose by what we demonstrate to be true while we're here, then we fail eternally. Our sins are indeed covered by Christ's sacrifice if what we declared when accepting His sacrifice proves to be true in our hearts. Words come easy to us, the proof by the evidence of the true intentions of our hearts that are clearly exposed to Him. We'll likely make some mistakes in our choices, but our hearts won't lie to Him about our intentions. If our hearts somehow become sick, we know there's a cure - His name is Jesus. As God's children, thankfully His mercies are new for us every day. For that and His continual patience and grace, we must be forever grateful. I know I am!
The history of our hearts tell him a true story - let it be a good one. Make good choices, dining in the company of the Holy Spirit.
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