Choices are for Choosy People (Part 1)

2 Corinthians 5:19

The Message (MSG)

16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

In life we get to make a lot of choices and every day.  We can choose our car color and the type.  We can choose to change our hair color and style.  We can choose what we want to eat for lunch, dinner and breakfast plus snacks in between.  We  get to choose between going for a walk or taking a nap.  We can decide if we want a cat or a dog or no pets at all.  We can choose between kids or no kids. We can pick which season we love best.  We can choose to live almost anywhere we want.  Choice after choice after choice after choice.

(Just as a side note for those with analytically thinking processes…I know there are people all over the world who have limited choices they can make, but that’s a whole other blog.  Bear with me, that is not where I am going with this.)

So what does it mean to have all of these choices to make?  There are consequences to every choice we make.  Some seem silly like choosing a red car instead of a black will make some of your friends happy and others will put their two cents in about it.  Choices often characterize who we are as a person, such as clothes or hairstyles.  Some choices may make you happy or regretful.  Choices can change your mood or cause you to change something about yourself.

What about choosing Jesus?  Now there is a choice I have never come to regret even when at times the changes He was making in my life seemed crazy.  Now this is where I am going…choices are for choosy people.  If, let’s say, we were a person who was just happy with the lot they were given in life, they may choose to be content not moving ahead or changing.  This person may choose to stay in poverty even when the opportunity to move ahead is knocking at the door.  By making this choice to be stagnate, they may miss out on what God has for them, however, that is their choice and we are not to judge.  Choices are often made for comfort and that is perfectly fine.  Even if we desire better for someone they may be perfectly happy right where they are.

Now, when we choose Jesus, our lives can take a drastic change in the opposite direction that we were going.  In 1976 I accepted Jesus as my Savior but as I grew older I thought I had it all figured out.  I did not seek God for answers to my choices, I just chose what I wanted.   In 1992 I made a choice to marry a man who was to be the father of my children.  At the time I thought I had it all figured out and even though I knew the extent of his drinking problem, I was sure I could fix him.  Years later as I began to recognize my need for God to help make my choices, I made a complete turn around and started making choices after consulting with God.

So it’s all connecting the right dots with God as the pencil.  He already has our lives mapped out like it says in Jeremiah 29:11 and all we have to do is look to Him for the net dot.  Jesus, do I marry this man or woman?  God, do I take this new job or stay where I am at?  Lord, do I move to Texas or stay where I am?  All of the important choices in life that will change who you are or your destiny need to be prayed about.  So often we get into trouble when we just make a quick choice and are not choosy about who we consult with.

In the next blog we will take a look at good choice, bad choice.  What happens when you feel like you have make a good choice but it ends badly……