Each New Year brings resolutions we make for changes that will better our lives. Although we usually have every intention of keeping them, all too soon they are abandoned because change is hard. Most of us want changes to instantly happen without any effort on our part. We think if we write them down they will miraculously come to pass. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
That’s why last year I resolved not to make resolutions but to focus on daily choices instead. So my 2015 blog posts were devoted to choices. The response was so positive I’ve decided to continue with another year of choices in 2016.
Hopefully we all know that God has forgiven us for our sins – past, present, and future. Nothing we can do will ever earn us salvation because it is a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8) Nothing we can do will make God love us anymore than He does. Christians who perform lists of do’s and don’ts trying to get God to love them, or at least love them more than the next guy, do not understand God’s grace. God’s love is freely given to us!
However, even though God gives us salvation, grace, and love, He does not automatically give us good habits or moral character. Those qualities are determined by the choices we make.
Consider this… When God reveals Himself to us we must choose to receive His gifts of salvation, grace, and love. Ah…that word “choice” is in everything we do!
After forty long years of wandering in the wilderness an aged Moses admonished the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land to make good choices. “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways…and the Lord shall bless you in the land which you go to possess. …I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursing; therefore choose life…” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)
Right choices bring peace of mind; bad choices bring difficulty. God does not need to zap us when we do something wrong, because wrong choices bring their own penalties. When we make wrong choices we punish ourselves. It’s the cause and effect principle. What we sow, we reap. Although God always forgives us when we make poor choices, the effects remain and we have to deal with and live with them.
While it is true time and chance happen, many of our problems could be avoided if we trained ourselves to make better choices. A lot of trials are brought on because of our poor choices; other trials may not be our fault, but still we must choose how to respond to them. So there is always an element of choice in everything we do.
The Bible is full of exhortations encouraging us to walk in the way of the Lord. As we read the Bible we can listen for God’s voice whispering to us, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” (Isaiah 30:21) Still, the choice is ours. We must choose which way we will walk.
So here we go with another year of choices! If we resolve to day by day make better choices, we will be a lot happier – and so will everyone around us.
Some choice quotes about choices…
“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” ~Roy Disney, co-founder of Walt Disney Productions
“We all make choices but in the end our choices make us.” ~Ken Levine, video game designer and author
“When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself is a choice.” ~William Jennings Bryant, American orator and statesman
“It is our choices that show what we truly are far more than our abilities.” ~J.K. Rowling, author
“When it snows you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels.” ~Anonymous
