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CHRISTIAN LIVING TODAY
Anita
Ask anyone how they are doing and you will likely hear something along the lines of, “I’m just busy” or “Life is pretty busy.” We are a busy society.
I think God knows people are busy.
Day after day, activities and tasks contend for our attention. Sometimes we go about our day as if we have no choice, when the reality is we have options.
Life is full of competing good things, and it is hard to choose sometime … because often, one choice means leaving something else undone.
It helps me to categorize tasks as a tool for making good choices. Two Biblical illustrations help us clarify between good versus best, and spirit versus flesh, our innate human nature — who we are apart from God’s influence.
Spirit versus flesh? Galatians 5:17 says: “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces constantly fight each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.”
Good versus best? Satan challenged Jesus in the wilderness following His baptism. The choices were not merely good versus evil — Jesus’ choices were discerning good versus God’s best. He was in the wilderness forty days, enduring temptations and choices.
Satan didn’t tempt Jesus to do bad things, only to choose a different path from God’s design.
In a similar way, we too face temptations to forfeit God’s best and settle for something we deem is good … or good enough.
Jesus replied with Scripture and maybe recalled other truths like Psalm 25:12, Joshua 24:15 or Deuteronomy 30:19, “… I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life …” Our choices bear witness to people and things that are important to us. They become markers that shape our lives. Every choice, whether active or passive, contributes to where you find yourself today.
We, too, face the invocation of Deuteronomy: to choose life over death, blessing over curses, so that we and our descendants may live.
Our American culture screams that we can have it all. But if you live long enough, you discover that just isn’t true.
Choose life today. Choose loving God and others today! Until next week, Anita
Onarecker, an Elgin resident, author of “Divine Appointment: Our Journey to the Bridge” and minister to women and adults, earned a Master of Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2007.
