Choosing

 Image by Aline Ponce @Pixabay

The prayer meditation in my morning devotional used the description forever-home for heaven. If heaven is our true home, why did God create us here instead of heaven? Why go through all this human rigmarole? To develop good character?

Adam and Eve were born into a Paradise, one step below heaven. They spoke with God face to face. If they were that close to God, why did He not just put them in heaven and skip Eden altogether?

Then I realized one big factor. True love requires choice. It can’t be forced.

If God plopped us down in the middle of heaven, there would be no choice. God’s love is so complete He gave us a free will. God would never force us to choose Him. But in order to have a choice, there must be something else to choose.

In the case of Adam and Eve, God placed the Tree of Life in the middle of Paradise. He told them not to eat of its fruit, giving them a choice between Him or temptation, Satan in disguise. Their choice caused us to be born into a world of temptations.

We can’t lay total blame on their shoulders. We lean toward temptation by our very nature. But through the birth of Jesus, God not only restored our relationship with Him, but He also became a physical presence. Jesus’ disciples could see, touch, and hear Him, much like Adam and Eve. Still, they too fell into temptation, but repented, and chose God over everything, even their earthly lives.

Through Scripture I see and hear Jesus. I feel his presence when I open my heart to Him. Even so, like the Apostles, I often make the wrong choices. But also like them, when it comes to Whom I choose to give my life to, the choice is easy. 

Merry Christmas! May the peace of Christ be with you throughout this season, through the New Year — always!   

 

Reflections

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

I choose to be aware of evil but concentrate on the good I see. “For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8.

 

It amazes me that our all powerful God humbled himself to become one of us, the Creator subjected to his creation. He is so far above us and yet he chose not only to come as a helpless babe, dependent on human parents, but he also died for us, taking our place, burdened by our sins. It’s hard to understand, but I’m thankful all the same.

 

As for prayer, I read an interesting concept. Whatever we are praying for, would Jesus pray for the same thing? If the answer is no, then God’s answer will be the same. Our prayers must be in alignment with God’s will for our life. In essence, everything we do, everything we ask for, should be to glorify God, not to satisfy our desires or insist on our own will. “Not my will, but yours be done. In Jesus’ name I ask. Amen.” The more I pray, the more my thoughts and desires align with God’s plan for my life.

 

“And he turned the storm into a breeze: and its waves were still… He hath turned a wilderness into pools of water, and a dry land into water springs.” Psalm 107:29, 35. He has carried me through every difficult moment of my life, even sending a few miracles, as long as I held onto my faith, trusting him and not my circumstances. 

 

“All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1. God uses each season to complete his work in us, for his glory and our good. Amen.