Decide

 

Friday, July 29, 2022

With the Lord’s authority I say this:  Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused.  Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.  They have no sense of shame.  They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.  But that isn’t what you learned about Christ.  Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.  Ephesians 4:17-24

Choice is the most powerful and consequential freedom and responsibility any human being possesses.  In theological discussion we call it free will.  God endowed each of us with a moral compass within pointing us in God’s direction.  The purpose of this to bless our ways, and yet God still allows us to choose our pathway.  It is never easy.  I recall hearing sometime after the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton, that during his parade walk to the White House he told wife, Hillary:  This is really happening; we won.  What do we do now?[1] 

                                                                      (image in public domain)

The answer to Bill’s question is begged every day of our lives.  Our circumstances may be quite different than feeling the weight of being elected president of a country with 300 million constituents, but, for each human soul, the possibilities are nonetheless vital.  Deciding which next step we will take is not an option; choosing the direction of that step is monumental.

The Apostle Paul’s advice to the first-century believers at Ephesus (and 21^st century believers as well) is to throw off the old sinful nature.  That is, says Paul, to put aside our sinful inclinations, which ignore the direction of God’s moral compass within.  This means putting the moral compass on the front-burner, allowing God’s direction to continually alert us to the best path of thoughts and attitudes.  This is the place where God’s Spirit will speak to us and walk with us.

In the real world, with voices clamoring to turn this way, do that thing, buy this, try that, go here, forget that…the choices can paralyze.  God’s Spirit wants to release us to the joy of abundant life, free from distracting, demoralizing, and sinful influences. 

For You Today

As with other choices, there is a time when the rubber of how you will live your life meets the road of decision.  Following God’s moral, eternal compass will not happen by chance; it is a defining moment in any human soul’s existence to surrender to the culture, or surrender to Christ. 

It is that simple.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts in the Rocky Road Devotions library. 

To dig deeper on today’s topic read:  Bedrock Convictions  Part 1   and  Part 2  and  Part 3

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1]I do not know if this is a true account or merely an apocryphal tale; it is used to make a point about being overwhelmed by life’s circumstances.