Live gives us choices. I’ve been reading through the book of Proverbs lately in my Chronological Bible study for the year. I am more and more convicted that the choices we make determine our path through life, and that the path through life is guided by a Providential God Who wants only the best for His children made in His image. The question is, do we follow the commandments of God or the whimsy and desires of our sinful hearts? Do we satisfy ourselves with life on earth, thinking that its magnificent charms of beauty, riches, importance, treasure, leisure, and prominence matter, or do we follow God’s mandate to be generous, humble, reliant on His mercy and grace, with a servant mentality rather than being in charge, and even to be satisfied with the basics of simple homes, food, and the importance of family relationships? Which choice is better in the long run? Do we build our wealth here or in eternity? That is the basic choice.
Deuteronomy 30:15-16 says: “Now listen! Today I am gibine you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death. I have commanded you today to love the LORD your God and to keep His commands. . . If you do this, you will live,. . . and the LORDS your God will bless you.”
We can expand this to the choice our nation is fighting right now. Not to get political, because ALL belongs to God and He will judge. We can choose to love each other because God made us all in His image, with beauty and variety like in all of nature, and we can and should honor God’s precepts and follow His commandments. When our nation chooses to ignore God’s mandates, to think He is irrelevant, to thwart His plan to spread the Gospel to all the world, to recognize that one day, all tribes, nations, peoples, and languages will fall down in worship of His Name or will face eternal condemnation, our decision is vitally important. We won’t hear it on the cable stations. We won’t see it in our entertainment. We won’t hear it from the world’s celebrities. We hear and read it in the Bible, His Word to us, and from His Son, Jesus Christ, who lived His life before us. He befriended sinners. He loved the slave. He detested the pomposity of religious leaders who looked good on the outside but were filthy tombs in their hearts.
The choice is simple but so very complex. Do we live for our pleasure and satisfaction, or do we choose the narrow path of obedience and service? Let us pray for humanity today, that we all hear the message and bend the knee. Make the wise choice, for Jesus will reign and His people will worship in the Peaceable Kingdom promised.
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