Life vs Death

Deuteronomy 30:18-20, "This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life..."

"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you..." God sets before you choices every day. What you choose will be held against you. What you choose is not covered up, or given to you as an excuse. It is held against you and you cannot hide from the truth that lays right in the choices you make. "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life..." Every choice that we make, no matter how small we think it is, has either life or death written in it. Every choice that we make determines how the next course of our life will go. Every choice that we make has consequences that follow, good and bad. Will we be willing to work hard now? Will we be willing to set aside our own selfish ambitions today, for a life tomorrow?

As I look back upon my life, and really consider the choices that I have made, it is much easier to see the "life and the death" that was placed in front of me, and to notice the choices that I deliberately made. When Jason and I were dating, I had a choice placed in front of me. I could lay aside what I thought that I wanted, and choose life. Or, I could push against everything and choose to continue on the path that I was on, a path that I knew led to destruction. I had been struggling with my own desires and I wanted to hang on to what was familiar. I was uncertain about the life that he was offering to me. I did not know what the outcome would be and this uncertainty scared me. Would I choose to be uncomfortable for a time? Would I choose life, something that was unfamiliar to me. Or would I choose death, the path that I knew very well. Change is hard, but it is only hard because we choose to war within ourselves.

Oswald Chambers wrote, "Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, 'You are My friends...' (John 15:14)."

In this journey I have listened and followed God, not always by my choice, but because that seemed to be the only real choice that was offered. Other times I have definitely taken the wrong path and fought against what He was calling me to. I tried to convince myself that what I was doing was really not that big of a deal, since I had made the right choice before. But, just because I had made the right choice once, did not mean that I was off the hook the rest of the time. It is a daily decision. He is calling us to follow Him daily, moment by moment. Can we lay aside what we desire now, in order to see the bigger picture for our future? Christ has given us His everything. Can we see all that we will give up, if we choose to go against what He has chosen for us? What choice did we make last night that will affect us today? What are we Choosing today that will affect us tomorrow? We cannot blame anyone else for the consequences we have today, because of the choices we made yesterday. Is it really worth it?