Tag Archives: choose life

February 23, 2024 · 5:34 AM

Choosing Wisely

There are a lot of things in your day you don’t get to choose. You don’t get to choose the weather, the traffic or situations that happen to you. However,you do get to choose your attitude and how you respond to those things. The choice you make determines whether you become a victim or a victor. God loves to give us choices, and just like in life, it’s not always easy to choose the right one. I’ve found that I must predetermine what my choices will be before I’m in circumstances. If I don’t, I’m likely to choose the wrong thing. It’s better to be proactive than reactive. Think about the following choices and what you will choose in difficult circumstances.

Here are some Bible verses on choices God gives.

1. I continue to pray for your love to grow and increase beyond measure, bringing you into the rich revelation of spiritual insight in all things. This will enable you to choose the most excellent way of all —becoming pure and without offense until the unveiling of Christ.

Philippians 1:9-10 TPT

2. Don’t you realize that grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully, for you surrender yourself to become a servant—bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death. But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you into perfect righteousness.

Romans 6:16 TPT

3. I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God’s blessing and God’s curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life.

Deuteronomy 30:19 GNT

4. Yet I will [choose to] rejoice in the Lord; I will [choose to] shout in exultation in the [victorious] God of my salvation!

Habakkuk 3:18 AMP

5. Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.

Proverbs 22:1 NLT

Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash

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April 10, 2023 · 5:51 AM

Choices

Since I can remember, I have never liked being told what to do. I like being asked to do something, but take away my choice and something rises up in me. My parents learned this about me early on. They would tell me I could eat my broccoli or I could stay at the table. I could see the TV from where I sat, so I stayed at the table a few nights until bedtime. They wised up and said I could eat my broccoli or I could go to my room and go to bed. That motivated me to do something about the broccoli. Sometimes I liked the choices given to me, and other times I didn’t. I’ve learned that in life choices have consequences. Some have good consequences and some not so good. I’ve also learned that my choices don’t exist in a vacuum. No matter what I choose, it affects people all around me.

When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, He gave them lots of choices. In the middle of the garden He planted the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He told them not to eat from that tree. It wasn’t long until the serpent came in Genesis 3 to tempt them with choosing to eat from that tree. He asked, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” Eve responded, “‘Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die’” (NLT). The serpent challenged her trust in God’s Word and she chose to eat it. She then offered some to Adam and he chose to eat it as well. They then chose to try to conceal it from God and faced the consequences of their choices.

In Deuteronomy 11:26 God offered Israel (and us) a choice. He said, “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!” It seems like an easy choice, but we choose the curse over the blessing pretty often. The good news is God is there to forgive us when we make the wrong choice. Life would have been easier without the choice, but God, who is love, understands that if He were to remove our choice, it would remove our ability to love Him fully. The choice isn’t there to trick us or tempt us. It’s there so that we can choose our creator over the things He created. It’s to show if we trust Him or ourselves. To this day, He still gives each of us this choice. As you go about your day, you’re going to be given several opportunities to choose what He wants or what you want. Either one you choose has consequences. You can have a blessing or a curse. One choice may offer you an immediate result, while His results often come over time. Listen to the Holy Spirit and seek His wisdom in what you choose daily.

Photo by Einar Storsul on Unsplash

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March 22, 2021 · 5:54 AM

Hidden Treasure

Not long ago, I took my son and his friend for a walk. When we got to the front of our neighborhood, I asked them if they’d like to climb down the 20 foot drop off to go down to the river bed. Their eyes got wide with excitement and definitely wanted to. When we got to the bottom, they began scouring the ground for rocks. One of them found a red rock and exclaimed, “I found a ruby!” Another one held up a black rock and yelled back, “I found obsidian!” They would also pick up other rocks and ask what kind of gems they were. Even though there weren’t any real gems down there, they were searching hard for them, turning over each rock and examining them. They wanted to find something of value badly and it was difficult to pull them away from that area.

I’ve been reading the Bible chronologically this year. Today will be my last reading in the first five books of the Bible. There’s a lot more about the Law in those books than there are stories, but over and over again, God says that these words bring life. He wanted them, and us, to bind them on our heart, our arms and our forehead. He wanted us to treasure His Word so that we would obey it. In Deuteronomy 30:19, God said, “I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God’s blessing and God’s curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life” (GNT). The choice was to obey or disobey His Word. He wants us to value and cherish what He says. If we value it, we will search through it, seek to understand it and obey it.

Davis was someone who valued God’s Word. He treasured it and thought of it as such. In Psalm 19:10 he wrote, “The rarest treasures of life are found in his truth. That’s why God’s Word is prized like others prize the finest gold” (TPT). You and are need to not only treasure God’s Word, but to search through it like we’re on a treasure hunt. Dig through it daily, hold it up, examine it and ask questions about it. What may seem ordinary or old fashioned to many, actually contains hidden treasures, real truth and ultimately life. If we treat His Word as ordinary, it will lose its value in our lives and we’ll begin to see it as just a good book instead of God’s treasure given to us. When you read the Bible, don’t just read it to check off a Christian duty box. Search through it as if you’re searching for treasure and you will find the rarest of gems and life along the way.

Photo by N. on Unsplash

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May 3, 2017 · 5:37 AM

Consequences 


When I was little, my mom said, “Don’t touch that. It’s hot.” What did I do? I touched it and got burned. When I got a little older, she said, “Don’t eat mushrooms in the back yard.” What did I do? I fed them to my younger brother and I got spanked. A few years later, she said, “Don’t talk that way.” What did I do? I said a few choice words and got my mouth washed out with a Ivory soap. Each time I disobeyed, I suffered the consequences of those actions whether it was through her punishment or the physical result of disobedience.

In the Garden of Eden, God said, “Don’t eat of that tree in the middle.” What did they do? They ate from the tree and were kicked out of the garden. God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments. What have we done since? We’ve broken them and suffered the consequences. In my own life, I’ve known what God has said, and I’ve lived in violation of the way He has said to live and I’ve suffered the consequences.

Several years ago, while suffering with the consequences of my choices, God was using them to try to bring me back into right relationship with Him. The more I pushed back, the more it seemed I suffered. I eventually surrendered, but had to live with the consequences. The pain of that time has been a constant reminder to me to follow God’s will and plan. Do I do it all the time? No. I still disobey at times, but those times are getting fewer and I’m learning to repent faster.

All of us face the consequences of our sins. It’s designed to help us remember to obey much like my punishments when I was younger. Psalm 119:71 says, “My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees” (NLT). We don’t like the suffering from our consequences, but it helps us remember in the future to walk in obedience to what God says. God sets life and death before us. Oh that we would obey His Word and choose life. It’s a much less painful route.

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