Choose my instruction rather than silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold. Proverbs 8:10
Do you remember when you could go into a cafe and the choice of hot drinks was tea, coffee or hot chocolate? Now when you go to order coffee the choices are vast: latte, Americana, espresso, skinny, flavoured, de-caffeinated, and all sorts of permutations and combinations of these and more! In our Christian walk we have just two choices: do it God’s way or not. The Bible contains an array of options for us, and even though we know what choice we should make (just look at the book of Proverbs!), sometimes we still take the wrong one.
At Shechem Joshua gave the children of Israel a choice: serve the Lord or serve the gods of the Egyptians and Amorites; but made it clear what he and his household were going to do. The Israelites had seen God in operation in their wanderings in the wilderness and decided en masse to serve God, thereby committing themselves to getting rid of any false gods in their possession, and ultimately entering into covenant with Him there. We have the same choice to serve the Lord or not, and once we have decided to follow Him, we enter into covenant with Him. This is a binding agreement from both sides; we cannot play at being a part-time servant of God.
Moses presented the Israelites with a choice from God too: I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. (Deut 30 v 19). Not much choice in that is there? But if we look back at the preceding chapters we see that the proviso was obedience to the Word (Deut 28 v 1). Do we carry the Word lightly or do we weigh up what we read and ask God to help us put it into practice in our lives?
Adam and Eve had a choice: desire the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of life. With a bit of persuasion they picked the wrong one and forfeited their access to the right one. Are there areas in your life where God has given you a choice and you have been influenced to make what you now perceive to be the wrong choice? Repent and ask God to make it clear what you can do about it.
Prayer:
Lord I am so sorry for when I have exalted my will above Yours, please forgive me. I know that Your choices are the best ones for my life, please help me to recognise them quickly. Amen.
