Your Choice - Be Careful The Decision You Make

Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster. 

~Dt.30:15 

This is a moving statement made by Moses to the people of Israel as they are getting ready to enter into the promised land. To this point, they had followed Moses, and Moses had directed them in what God had said, shown them the things that God wanted, and given them God's law. Now at a critical juncture in their lives, when a leader they had known for years would no longer be there to guide them, they had a critical choice to make. This was a moral choice – a life choice. It was a choice that would have to be made upon heart and self resolution. It was not something that could be made by a mechanized process, they were not robots and God didn't want robots. As with us, God was giving them the freedom to make moral choices. God made man in his image, so we are not like an animal that just goes by instinct. In effect, God says, “I gave you the capacity to make moral choices because I don’t want to force you to love me. I want you to choose. You can either love me or not love me. You can follow my purpose for your life, or you can go make up your own purpose for your life. I’ve given you that choice.”

There's a thing about the freedom of choice: You must be willing to live with the consequences of that choice, understanding that you made that decision of your own validity. While you’re free to choose anything you want to do in life, you’re not free from the consequences. The consequences are part of the choice. There will be a day when God will ask you to explain why you made the choices you did. Eccl.3:17 reminds us, "God has planned a time for everything, and he has planned a time to judge everything people do. He will judge good people and bad people."

When we decide to not hear God, it is not God's fault. He has given us the opportunity – we are the ones choosing not to hear. When we decide not to obey God, it is not God's fault. He has supplied to us what is written, that we may know His way – we are choosing not to heed. When we decide that we do not need what God has provided and that we can better do it our own way – we cannot blame God who gave us the road God's signs and warnings not to do so. We made the decision.

The same Israel Moses spoke to above, is "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as they did when they provoked me."the same Israel that was known for their stubbornness and rebellion. The consequence of that rebellion kept all but two of the older generation from seeing the Promised Land they so sought. God makes the plea with us today, not to make their mistake. Heb 3:15 As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as they did when they provoked me." What is your choice?

Jim