We make dozens of choices every day: when to wake up,
where to work, what to eat, what clothes to wear. Any choice we make in life
takes our full trust. We trust in our parents, teachers, employers, finances
and our roof not to leak. Yet, we find it too hard to trust in God. We fear
that He will require too much from us, ruin all of our fun or let us down one
too many times. The truth is that following God is the only choice that offers
a 100% guarantee.
Our parents may pass away, our teachers change every year,
our employers lay us off, our commodities fail, and it’s inevitable that our
roof will leak at some time or another. Yet, God gives us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). His
plans give us ultimate success rather than failure. We may lose a battle, but
He already won the war over sin and death. He offers us eternal life, which
starts the moment we submit our life to Him. Our surrender is gradual, but
consistent.
As Catholics, my parents baptized me at birth. Then at age
12, I went through confirmation. The purpose of this exercise was to allow me
to choose Christ for myself. However, I had no idea what I was doing. The nuns
made me memorize an entire booklet of catechism questions, and then stand
before the Bishop who slapped my cheek to remind me to stay true to Christ
regardless of persecution. Neither baptism nor confirmation taught me
to trust in Christ.
I did religious rituals out of obedience to my parents,
but they had no spiritual significance for me at all. It was in my first year
of college when I read, The Cross and the Switchblade, by David
Wilkerson, that I saw the stark distinction between saved and unsaved people.
The unsaved struggled endlessly to carve out a living in this life. The saved
trusted in Christ for everything. He provides their secure and abundant life on
earth and for eternity (Proverbs
16:9). I quickly surrendered my life to Christ.
A life in Christ has nothing to do with self-effort (Ephesians 2:8-9), and
everything to do with ceasing from our labor and entering into Christ’s rest (Hebrews 4:10). Life
no longer includes our choices. As we take our delight in Him, God puts His
desires in our heart (Psalm
37:4). We submit to God’s Spirit who leads us to function in the work,
which God prepared for us to do before we were born (Ephesians 2:10). The best choice is to
the do the will of Him who sent us (John 4:34).
Prayer:
Father God, You predestined us according to Your
foreknowledge to live in such a way that we advance Your Kingdom in the earth
as we fulfill Your will for us (Ephesians 1:11; Romans 8:29). This takes all the guesswork out
of our life. We simply follow the leading of Your Spirit each and every moment
of the day. We are persuaded that You will keep us until the day we come to dwell
with you (2 Timothy
1:12).
Thought for the Day:
We intimately know the God who gave His life for us, and
lives in and through us. – Philippians 2:12-13