Choices…

“In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,  “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.  I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.”  (Is.38)

Hezekiah had a choice. He could receive the word given to him by the prophet and die. But he chose to pray and cry out to God. God heard his prayer and added fifteen years to his life.

It seems that many decisions we make and actions we take basically comes down to making a daily decision for Christ. Sometimes it might even be more than once a day.

Will we be conformed to the world or do we choose to be transformed by the renewal of our minds (Rom.12:2)? This will require us to sometimes swim upstream when everyone else is swimming downstream.

We have the choice whether or not we will lift up our heads and carry on even when our feet seems to have been knocked out from under us. We have a choice whether or not to be positive. Will we gossip and destroy with our words or rather build someone else up by speaking Truth over them? Will we allow the world to tell us how to deal with certain situations or do we enquire of God? These are all choices in everyday life.

We pray that God will guard our heart during a meeting. Then He does, but we still have the choice whether or not to react from that place of received strength or from a victim mentality. We pray for healing and then we experience the healing taking place. But we still have a choice whether to walk in the miracle or to carry on complaining to keep attracting sympathy or attention. We pray for our country but then upon hearing bad news we have the choice whether to be negative in our words and reaction or whether to rather keep praying and proclaiming that “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Ps.27:13,14)

Is it possible to daily choose God? Yes.

Is it easy? No, surely not. Gal.5:16,17 tells us “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

How do we do this? “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.” Zech.4:6

“Imagine a world where men had an inner construction from their identity in God, and out of that created priorities and loyalties which drove their choices.” Kenny Luck