Why Did God Make His Love a Choice?
By Kenny Luck
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. (Luke 9:23-24)
The wisdom of our Father in heaven is truly amazing when we look at His Word and the way it is laid out, regarding the sequence of thought He uses to convey His love for us.
When we look at the beginning of Genesis we see how He shows that love demands a choice. He gives Adam and Eve a chance to experience good and evil to show that there is no love without choice. We often condemn the way God has set up his plan when we see all the hurtful, negative, painful things in life. We have maybe thought or heard others ponder this question. God’s love is not recognized without the presence of choice.
Later in the book of Genesis we see Abraham is given a choice to stay or leave his homeland. Then we are exposed to the next four books of the Bible showing us God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt. It is interesting to consider this thought. Would we have ever considered the word faith or the risk that it demands if we would have no need to use the word?
The term “incompetent incompetence” has been used to describe the lowest level of intelligence. This is a person who doesn’t understand that he doesn’t understand. Do you understand that you need something or someone to deliver you from a life that contains emotional, physical, and relational pain, or are you the god of your life?
Let me quickly add that I believe we all slip into self-godship at times—where we take the reins and attempt to do a job that only God is qualified to do: run our life in a healthy, productive way. It’s the old North Star analogy: without the magnetic pull that is Christ—the lodestone of our life—we will always drift off course. Always. He is our North Star—the constant in a world of chaos. But … and it’s a big but … we have to make that God-of-our-lives choice each and every day. Sometimes many times each day—or hour!
In essence, faith is simply the best choice out of millions of choices. We make the “big choice” for Jesus when we give our lives to Him and ask Him to be our Lord and savior. We then make literally hundreds of thousands of choices on that road between here (this earthly life) and there (our eternal home).
What top three choices sit before you today? How can you best choose God’s path in each of those choices? Make a habit of always, always trusting the Holy Spirit to lead you to the best choices.
Thank You, Father, that You have chosen to reveal Your wisdom and love to me and for the joy of sharing it with others.
The faith content above appeared first on Every Man Ministries.
Kenny Luck is a pastor and author on a mission to revolutionize men's ministry, free men spiritually, and ignite spiritual health worldwide through Every Man Ministries.