Making Choices
We have no choice but to choose! Men are creatures of choice and there is no way to live in this world without making them. The famous words of Joshua: “if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” still challenge every person (Josh. 24:15). Some choice is inevitable. Neutrality is impossible. Joshua could not make the choice for them, but he could challenge them to make the right choice.
When people try to get us to make the right choices, they are not taking away our power of choice. Ultimately each makes his own choice and each will give account before a just Judge on the last day. “I couldn’t help it” will sound hollow in the ears of the Lord. Every person has a number of choices he may take in every temptation. He can submit to the temptation, or overcome it and encourage others to overcome it. He can stay and watch others sin, or he can leave the scene.
Before we make a choice, we should realize that choices have consequences. We have the power to choose, but we do not have the power to determine the consequences of our choices. A person who chooses to jump from a ten story building cannot choose the consequences. Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Gal. 6:7,8).
Moses looked at his choices and the consequences of each and decided he had rather “suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin…” (Heb. 11:25).
Joseph considered the temptation of fornication with Potiphar’s wife and concluded, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). Joseph’s father and mother would have been pleased with his choice, but neither could make it for him!
The power of choice is a God-given right. No one can take it from us, no one can make it for us and no one can answer for us. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
When people try to get us to make the right choices, they are not taking away our power of choice. Ultimately each makes his own choice and each will give account before a just Judge on the last day. “I couldn’t help it” will sound hollow in the ears of the Lord. Every person has a number of choices he may take in every temptation. He can submit to the temptation, or overcome it and encourage others to overcome it. He can stay and watch others sin, or he can leave the scene.
Before we make a choice, we should realize that choices have consequences. We have the power to choose, but we do not have the power to determine the consequences of our choices. A person who chooses to jump from a ten story building cannot choose the consequences. Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Gal. 6:7,8).
Moses looked at his choices and the consequences of each and decided he had rather “suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin…” (Heb. 11:25).
Joseph considered the temptation of fornication with Potiphar’s wife and concluded, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). Joseph’s father and mother would have been pleased with his choice, but neither could make it for him!
The power of choice is a God-given right. No one can take it from us, no one can make it for us and no one can answer for us. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).