Deciding for Life

The Lord has given us the option to choose in everything we do. The Christian life allows us to value the options that are presented to us in life and make decisions regarding them. We make dozens of decisions daily and many times we are not aware that depending on the motivations we have had to make a decision, life can take a 360 degree turn; either for better or for worse. The key is in the reason that we apply to make a certain decision. The decision depends on our will, because we already know that God has given us free will that allows us to do things the way of the world or the way of God. You choose. The world will approve of us according to our actions, abilities, and appearances; However, God has accepted us as we are and wants, with all his heart, that we make decisions based on what He says and not on what the world says.

The Lord speaks to us: “… I have given you a choice between life and death, between blessing and cursing. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live ”(Deuteronomy 30:19). Choosing is equal to deciding. The Lord wants us to choose life. Have you noticed, my dear brothers and sisters, the association that the word life has in the Scriptures with the name of Jesus? Let's see: I am the bread of life (Jn 6:48); I am the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14: 6); God has given us eternal life; and this life is in his Son; He is the Author of life (Acts 3:15), and so on many more verses .

God wants your decisions to allow you to remain in Jesus, who is Life. We have needs, we face problems, doubts and questions come to us for which we do not have human answers and we still have to make decisions. A decision based on carnal behavior, separated from God, will inevitably lead to frustration and sometimes self-destruction. A bad decision based on our own strategies and not trusting in the promises of God, can even influence the destiny of generations and even a nation.

God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son and through him a great offspring, the inheritance of a great nation. The old age of both and the “delay” of God, instilled fear and doubt in both about whether God was going to fulfill this promise and they decided to try to “give him a hand” and try to help him. Sarah proposed to her husband that he take her handmaid Hagar, the Egyptian slave, who was young and could undoubtedly conceive and possess her. Abraham's motivation was good: to help God. The decision destroys the hope that both must have had in God's plan. God's plan was so much better. You just had to wait. And so Ishmael, the firstborn, son of Hagar, was born. Sarah, already very old, conceived and gave birth to Isaac, as God had promised. Isaac was to be the true child of God's promise. Ishmael is the seed of the Arab people. Isaac of the Hebrew people. The consequences of this decision, taken several millennia ago, reach us to this day. Two nations at war, until today apparently irreconcilable.

Decisions based on motivations such as pride, vanity, self-reliance, and fear have bad consequences. The Word says: “For he who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh; but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap eternal life "(Galatians 8: 6)

When we make decisions motivated by the Spirit, we can trust that God will supply all our needs, he will demolish possible anxiety (anxiety is produced by our insecurity in the future by not trusting God), he will eliminate depression (depression happens when we focus in the negative experiences of the past and we lose hope) and remind us once again that we are new creatures, born again in the Spirit. It is contrary to our new nature in Christ to be depressed by focusing on our sinful past and its consequences. Christ blotted out our past, nailed our sins to the Cross, and made us new. We can make the decision to walk in the Spirit accordingly, and reap eternal life.

Making decisions God's way is doing his will, trusting him, waiting on him. An old saying of the world says: "he who waits despairs." The Lord of Lords declares: Wait in me and you will have blessing, persevere in me and you will live in peace, remain in me and you will be happy in whatever decision you make and you will multiply the fruits that my Spirit produces.

God bless you!