Do We Not Have to Choose?

“The good Christian life”…or, simply, “the Christian life”…neither is in the Bible.  And Michael shows us how we eat from the wrong tree so often while trying to live in a way God never speaks of…  This is a great “day’s” writing!

By myself I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me. --John 5:30

We make the statements, "All Jesus ever did, He never did. The Man who did everything did nothing. We are to let Jesus work through us as God worked through Jesus.” These statements prompt the question, "Do we not have to choose?" So often we hear about choosing correctly, about those Christians who refuse to do so, and about the issues of choosing and free will. However, the point is not choosing but what we choose. Of course we must choose; we choose to get up, go to work, eat, and so on. Again, the issue is what we are choosing. Once we establish the real point, we will come to a "Y" in the road. Go right and we will make the choices God wants us to make. Go left and we will be on the wrong road, where the emphasis is on choosing those things considered to be good: choose to pray, read the Bible, witness, stop the deeds of the flesh, and love an enemy. However, this is not the choice God wants us making. If we think the decision that we need to make is to lay down our sin, we are on the wrong track and can be sidetracked for years. It is easy to spot someone on the wrong road; he will say something like, "I should pray more, give more, do more witnessing, love more, be a better mate." This reveals a person that has made a wrong choice. So what is it God does want us to choose? First, choose to lose our kingdom, our glory, our pride, our righteousness, and our strength. This is the opposite of choosing to do better; it is admitting that we cannot do better. Second, we will be ready to choose to accept His righteousness, kingdom, glory, and strength. The third choice is to allow His life to flow through us, and we will then be living in dependence on the Son as He was with the Father. These three choices will produce and accomplish everything that was desired on the left road, but without the self-effort that leads to self-righteousness and the false sense that we are living “the good Christian life.” 

It cannot be said enough…Life as a Christian is coming to the realization and recognition that “Christ is our life” as a Christian, and all our efforts are not what God wants.  Life as a Christian is when He lives His life through us.  The Christian life (man has determined that…in fact, the two words never appear together in the Bible) is when we are trying to keep a list of doing the “good” and not doing the “bad.”   And we simply have to choose which “life” we will live.

May we find more and more Christians on the road that leads to making the choices God wants us to make.

Michael has given us three very simple choices we must make…how many will make them?