CHOICE
Jul 5, 2024 | by Diana Wade
Every week I am amazed at the beauty of you—the people who come to Faith Building Church to worship on Sunday mornings. We are individuals with different backgrounds who have a desire to know God’s Word and to have friends who will encourage us in that knowledge. My background may be like or unlike yours, but at some moment in our lives we all decided we wanted to know God, and we can fellowship around that fact.
I attended elementary school in South Lebanon in the mid fifties and graduated from Kings Mills High School in 1966. I LOVED to go to school! It was there that in the second week of first grade I bit a boy on the shoulder because he took my swing from me. It was also where I learned to spell, love arithmetic, write essays, play on teeter-totters, and play jacks during recess. And, best of all, I met the most amazing teacher who taught me how to accompany choirs and to love doing it. She changed my life forever and was responsible for making that awkward junior high girl have confidence in whom God had made her to be.
One of the best things about my school was the teachers who had Bibles in their class. Many of them read it to us everyday and prayed before school began. Those were wonderful years indeed.
So, even before I went to a Christian college I wanted to learn to be all I could be for Jesus. And I learned that the greatest key to that is CHOICE. I talk a lot about choice because it is one of the first recorded things we see that God gave Adam. He absolutely had a choice about that tree and a choice of how he told Eve about it. We see that they both made a bad choice that day, but aren’t you glad we don’t HAVE to make bad choices? Don’t misunderstand me, I am not just “teaching” you. I have made some bad choices in my life, but I am determined to listen better and better to the prompting of the Holy Spirit when He shows me the right choice.
Deuteronomy 30:19 in the Amplified Classic Bible says it this way:
“I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.”
I had a great grandfather who made choices that changed my life. I don’t know how many “greats” he is because he lived over 500 hundred years ago. I believe I will meet him in heaven. He chose to leave Germany and go to England because of religious persecution, and later his offspring (many generations after him) chose to leave England and come to America. I have wondered how many people in the generations before me prayed that their descendants would know and love Jesus, but I know one thing about them. Their choices were the reason for my existence and my love for Jesus.
I told you this story today to encourage you to make choices that will change your world and your descendants after you. Since I can’t improve on a list of choices I have compiled in the past, I will share them with you again.
1. CHOOSE LIFE…First of all, it’s your choice whether or not you are going to hide the Word so deeply in your heart that nothing can change your mind about it. It’s your choice to make it pre-eminent in your life. No one can make that choice for you…Deuteronomy 30:19…let’s read it again… “choose life, that you and your descendants may live.”
2. CHOOSE SUCCESS…Read Joshua 1:8, and also read about the choices these people made: Rahab, Ruth, Esther, Gideon, Paul, Peter
3. CHOOSE TO BELIEVE GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU…
It seems that John just “chose” to “love” Jesus and knew from the very beginning that “he was the one Jesus loved” (John 13:23). Read Romans 5:1-8…He loves you, you have His love in your heart, and you have peace with him, so if your status is that you have no peace with a family member, start meditating on the FACT that you have peace with your Heavenly Father, and His love has been put in your heart. Once you start believing that, you can allow His love to spill over onto the people in your life.
4. CHOOSE TO BELIEVE YOU’RE ACCEPTED…Ephesians 1:6-8 tells you what God thinks of you. Are you going to believe it? It doesn’t matter what people told you all your life, God accepts you in the beloved. If you keep believing He’s like those who “put you down” your whole life, you can’t step into the glorious future He has for you.
5. CHOOSE TO BELIEVE YOU’RE FORGIVEN AND THAT YOU CAN FORGIVE…We sing “I Am Forgiven”, but do you believe it? Hebrews 10:10-18…FORGIVING OTHERS IS A CHOICE. Think of it as a “three legged race”…have you seen that? Unforgiveness “binds” you to another and keeps you from “running the race” set before you which is spoken of in Hebrews 12. If you’re “looking behind” at those who have robbed, hurt, cheated on, and injured you, you can’t be “looking ahead” at the race Jesus plans for you. Don’t “faint in your mind” like verse three says. Let those people go. If you could have fixed it, you would have a long time ago. (**forgiving doesn’t mean you agree with them, it doesn’t mean you have to spend your days with them, it just means you release any “care” you have about it and commit it to the Author and Finisher of your Faith).
Philippians 4:13 in the Amplified Classic Bible encourages us this way:
“I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]”
Making these choices changes us as a person. We become an encourager, a giver, one who loves, and one who forgives. Then, those qualities become an example to the people who surround us in our lives. Even when hard times come, the strength of the Holy Spirit will rise up in us, and we will be the overcomers that our Heavenly Father created us to be. Let’s all resolve to make these choices every day and leave a legacy that will bless our descendants for generations—just like my (great many times) grandfather did.
Have a tremendously blessed day, and I will see you on Sunday!
Love you,
Pastor Diana