The Power of Choice

Have you ever been laughed at because of something you've said? Laughed at when you weren't trying to be funny? Have you ever been ridiculed by someone? Has anyone ever made you feel foolish because you couldn't quite get out what you were trying to get across? It's not a good feeling having someone do that to you, not a good feeling at all. In fact, with me it's a feeling that lingers and I don't like that it lingers. That hurt feeling that someone could be cruel that way. It's even worse when it's someone you care about. Sure, they might believe they are being harmless but their insensitive words ridiculing what you've said can really hurt.


We aren't supposed to let another's ridicule hurt us though, right? We are supposed to just chalk it up to their own failings and pray for them, yes? We're supposed to let it roll right off us as the saying goes- like water off a duck's back.


Sometimes I can do that, sometimes I can get it right and I do just let it go and it doesn't linger to gnaw at me. Other times I can't let it go and it nibbles away at me and I try to make sense of it all and put it into proper perspective so I can just let it go and get onto other things. During that trying to make sense of it process once in a while it becomes clear that there is a lesson I need to learn and until I learn that lesson or at least begin to learn it, it will just keep nagging at me.


Tonight during Bible study one of my sisters walked through the room (not attending the study) and she heard just a bit of what we were saying and then I said something about having the opportunity to choose, that we can't have that opportunity unless there is something to choose between- or something to that effect. My sister laughed and made some ridiculing remark I couldn't make out clearly but what was clear was she thought what I'd said was pure stupidity, it was as if she'd said a great big DUH! No kidding, fool. And after she did that I was left with that nagging, nibbling, gnawing feeling of hurt and partly of shame. Like how could I have said something so stupid. When I'd had that thought it hadn't seemed stupid to me at the time. The study was partly on Genesis and the choice given to Adam and Eve in the garden- to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree or not.


As I went over much later in my head what I was trying to get across it occurred to me in such a big way that I had to write this.


Having the power of choice is a HUGE thing, it's a matter of LIFE and DEATH for us, yet we don't think about that power often enough. We don't think about the choices we make nearly enough as we should. Or rather we don't think about the consequences of the choices we make. We are flippant with the consequences, not considering that making the wrong choices REALLY do have grave consequences. We especially don't take time to think about our choices in terms of our eternity. If a choice we make now doesn't have any immediate consequences it's so much easier to just forget about consequences altogether.


How often do you make choices?
We make them every single day of our lives!

Upon waking up we begin that process of choosing one thing or another.
We choose each day whether or not we are going to let God lead us or try to go it alone. It's not enough to say you choose to follow God one time and then never make that choice again. As we go through our daily lives the choices we make are reflections upon the choice we make to follow God and His ways or not to follow Him, but follow our own ways.


Adam and Eve could have been placed in a garden upon earth without any forbidden tree. Think about it for a moment. If they were placed in a garden without the forbidden tree would they be following God out of choice? If there is NOTHING to choose between- you have NO power of choice, right?


See this is the idea I had in my head but obviously didn't articulate properly and left myself open to my sister's passing ridicule. I'd meant to jog by memory and expound upon the thought but after the passing ridicule I was left feeling foolish. Obviously I was meant to think this through much more thoroughly than I would have otherwise. It's not pleasant this chastening of the Lord's, but we were told chastening isn't pleasant- it's not supposed to be. Chastening is meant to teach us, we are suppose to learn from situations that are very unpleasant to us, right? These times of ridicule meant by Satan to wound us and leave us feeling bitter and hurt can be used as times of chastening, times we can learn from if we allow. We can be given a blessing in disguise- if we allow.


Did my sister mean to wound me? Most likely. That's a harsh thing to say, but a true thing. You don't laugh at something someone is trying to say as you're passing through a room if you aren't intending to make them feel like a fool, letting them know that you believe what they are saying is stupid, idiotic even. I can't reason out any good intention from her comments, none, so I'm left with the conclusion she meant to hurt me. God, please help me to forgive her, and help me to learn from this lesson. Help me to learn not to take offense at the arrows she's throwing my way, but rather help me to pray for her, to be understanding as You would have me be understanding. Truly her ridicule has turned into a blessing because it has me delving deeper into the Lord's word, deeper into the things that the Spirit of God would have me learn and understand.


Pro 1:10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
Pro 1:15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path
Pro 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Pro 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
Pro 1:30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Pro 1:33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.


Sinners- DID NOT CHOOSE the fear of the LORD.


There is a choice! We choose. The opportunity of choice exists because we have a loving God that did not simply set Adam and Eve up in a garden without that ability. He did not create beings to obey Him because they had NO CHOICE but to obey Him. There is NO freedom without the possibility of enslavement, right? By giving them the power to choose between obeying their Creator or not obeying their Creator, God gave them power. Adam and Eve were empowered by the ability to choose right from wrong. Adam and Eve were free beings when they were given the power of choice. Without that power of choice they would have been no better than slaves of God. Today we EACH have that same power of choice- to follow God or not, to obey our Creator or not.


May God help us because without His help we are lost. Help us to understand, help us to choose right over wrong, life over death, Christ over Satan.


By the mercy of our Lord and Savior may we live always and forever in Him, by HIS righteousness.


All glory!
All honor!
All praise to our Creator and King, our Savior, our Life, our Love!


Amen.