“Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster. I am commanding you to be loyal to the LORD, to live the way he has told you, and to obey his laws and teachings. You are about to cross the Jordan River and take the land that he is giving you. If you obey him, you will live and become successful and powerful” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16).
Once you make choices, your choices make you. It’s easy to think your life is defined by what happens to you. But the truth is that your life is defined by the choices you make. It’s undeniable that bad things happen all the time. We live in a broken world. You don’t always choose right. Other people don’t always choose right. We all get hurt. But what happens to you is not nearly as important as the way you choose to respond. Some people are built up through difficult situations. Other people are broken by them. For some people, a bad experience is a stumbling block. For others, it’s a stepping-stone. If you take two people and put them in the exact same pain, one may succeed while the other fails. Why? Because of the choices they make. You cannot control many of your life circumstances, but you can control how you decide to respond. You can choose whether things make you bitter or better. Think about your future. Where do you want to be in 10 years? In 20 years? Without even knowing you, I can tell you where you’re going to be. Just tell me what you’re choosing right now. The choices you make today determine where you will be tomorrow. Wise people are always asking: What do I need to do today to get me where I need to be tomorrow? The book of Deuteronomy tells how God gave his people a choice: “If you obey [me], you will live and become successful and powerful” (Deuteronomy 30:16 CEV). The children of Israel would make their choice, and then their choices would make them. The same is true for you. God puts choices in front of you every day. What you do with your choices will determine the person you become.
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“When you make a promise to God, keep it as quickly as possible” (Ecclesiastes 5:4 GNT).
As you start a new year, you may be making some resolutions. Some might be commitments to yourself, your career, or your family. Others may be promises to God. If you make a promise to God, you should be quick to keep it. Just like delayed obedience is disobedience, a delayed promise is an unfulfilled promise. Ecclesiastes 5:4 says it clearly: “When you make a promise to God, keep it as quickly as possible” (GNT). Another promise to keep is to run quickly from temptation. With temptation, you need both preventative and emergency tactics. Preventative tactics mean that you work to keep yourself out of tempting situations. But today let’s focus on emergency tactics—what to do when you are being tempted. The Bible clearly says what to do with temptation: “Run from all evil things” (1 Timothy 6:11 NLT). That’s right. When you feel tempted to do something self-defeating or dishonoring to God, you should move out of the situation rapidly. What should you not do? Don’t argue with temptation. Don’t fight it. Why? Because you’re going to lose. If you’re watching something on television that tempts you to lust, change the channel. If you struggle with alcohol, run far away from the bar. One specific temptation the Bible tells us to run from in 1 Corinthians 10:14 is the worship of idols. “Wait a minute,” you might say. “I don’t have idols in my house.” Asked another way: What person or thing do you idolize? Success? Beauty? A favorite athlete or sport? A certain celebrity? Social media? Anything you put before God is an idol. Today few of us have idols that look like stone or wooden figures. Instead, we carry our idols in our wallets, watch them on TV, or park them in our driveways. No matter what your idols are and no matter what your temptations are, the strategy is clear: Run away. Don’t argue. Don’t fight. Run. If you don’t want to get stung by the bees, get away from the hive. So as you enter this new year, resolve to do two things quickly: Keep your promises to God, and run from temptation. “There is a right time and a right way to do everything, but we know so little” (Ecclesiastes 8:6 GNT).
As you look ahead to the start of a new year, take some time to reflect on your life. What needs to stay the same? What needs to change? One of the most important things to consider is how you can stay tuned in to God’s timing. Every great accomplishment involves timing. A successful football catch requires incredible timing between quarterback and receiver. In business, good timing in the market—particularly decisions about hiring and expanding—can mean everything. If you sing, you know how important it is to keep time with the other musicians. No surfer says, “Let’s go make some waves today.” Surfers can’t create waves in the ocean. Only God can do that. Surfers wait for the waves that God creates. That means surfers spend a lot of time waiting. Sometimes they might see a wave and let it go, knowing it’s not the right time. Then the surfer sees just the right wave, starts paddling faster and faster, catches the wave, rides the wave, and gets off the wave without wiping out. Surfing looks easy, but in reality it requires a lot of skill. The same is true in life. You have to develop the skill of timing. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8:6, “There is a right time and there is a right way to do everything, but we know so little” (GNT). There’s a rhythm to life. Learning to do the right thing at the right time takes skill. Christians often call that skill “walking in the Spirit.” The more you grow as a follower of Christ, the better you get at walking in the Spirit. Sometimes God’s Spirit leads you to run fast. Sometimes he leads you to walk slowly. You can enter the new year trying to make your own waves. Or you can learn to see and catch the waves God is making all around you. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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