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The Power of Choice: Living Out Your Faith Deliberately by Steve Llewellyn Making a Choice In our Christian walk, we face a great danger: Selfishness. God's high calling is before us, and many of us are aware of it. But in order to go there, we're going to have to overcome our disinclination to deny self. As Jesus said, we cannot serve two masters; we can't serve God and serve our self-pleasing tendencies at the same time. If we seek to please our selfish natures while claiming to follow Christ, we'll only be putting on an outward show. We must be authentic, completely given over to God. What do I mean by "deny ourselves?" Well, it means choosing to give up anything that hinders us from living a life pleasing to God, and to give up anything that interrupts our relationship with Him. It also means choosing to do hard things that we know are right even when we don't want to, in order to please God. In practical terms, this may look different in each person's life. It may mean giving up a particular relationship, or ending a habit you know has no redeeming value. It could mean committing to overcome your rage, or your lust, or your gossiping, or your worry by prayer and by intentionally confronting such a problem in your life. On the other hand, it may mean pursuing a certain relationship, or choosing to seek God before you make important life decisions. Self-denial shows up in many ways, and is vital to our life in God. If we love ourselves more than God, we're susceptible to two distinct forms of temptation: 1. When the going gets tough, & God doesn't immediately bail us out, we'll give up on Him, and seek out our favorite painkiller. 2. When we are enticed by sin, we will give in to it. In order to avoid this trap, it is going to take a conscious, willful choice on our part. In Joshua 24:14-15, the Israelites were given this challenge: Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. The question is before us also. Whom will we serve? Our fleshly desires, or God? We must choose. Three Major Areas of
Decision There are three areas of decision-making which show the significance of a deliberate Christian life: Counting the Cost, Taking Up Your Cross, and Standing Firm Until the End. Chronologically, Standing Firm Until the End comes last, but I'll bring it up here to show the importance of the other two. In Matthew 24, Jesus tells his disciples about the end of the age, and he states that "because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." [vs. 12-13] This speaks of a need for resolution. No one stands firm accidentally. It requires a choice, a choice that one commits to and sticks to over time. The importance of the effort this requires is underscored when Jesus says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." [Matthew 7:13-14] Both Counting the Cost and Taking Up the Cross are mentioned by Jesus in Luke 14:26-35. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose
one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate
the cost to see if has enough money to build it? For if he lays the
foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,
saying, "This fellow began to build and was not able to finish." [emphasis added.] First, we count the cost. And the cost is, in essence, that we will have to carry a cross. Look at what we must "hate" in order to follow Christ-- we die to all of our old priorities. Before we get started on the path, we need to carefully consider whether we're really committed to what's going to be required of us. This sort of preparation shows that we're talking about a serious decision to be made, not just something to try out. This isn't an easy path. Jesus makes this sobering exhortation in Luke13:24, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." We can find many places in Scripture which show that a lot of people are going to start on the path, but won't make it to the end. The possibility of becoming unfit by losing saltiness is mentioned above. Remember also the parable of the sower and the seeds (see Matthew 13); seed, representing the message of God's kingdom, landed many places, and in most it started growing. But some of those plants failed due to shallow roots, and others were choked out. In Matthew 25, Jesus teaches the parable of the ten virgins. Remember that five were prepared with extra oil, and five weren't. The five that weren't properly prepared weren't allowed into the wedding banquet. Jesus makes it clear that starting on the path is not the same as finishing it. It is therefore very important to count the cost and make a careful, deliberate choice to commit to following Christ. In the quote above from the book of Luke, Jesus says that we must take up our cross and follow him if we are to be his disciples. In Matthew 16:24-27, a little more is said about that arrangement. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done." We must see that this leaves no room for living for ourselves. We can't live part of our life for God, and keep back part for ourselves, to do with as we wish. It is all to be given over to God. Let's look at 1 John 2:1-6. "My
dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does
sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the
Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours
but also for the sins of the whole world. "Walk as Jesus walked." That's a pretty steep order. How did Jesus walk? Did he live to please himself? Did he mix some of pleasing God with some of what he wanted? No. This is the Jesus who said, "I have come down from heaven not do my will but the will of Him who sent me." Even when faced with the cross, he asked for another way, admitting it wasn't what he wanted to do, but his decision was "Not my will, but Your will be done." Jesus had counted the cost, and took up his cross very literally. This is how we must walk if we truly belong to Christ. This is perfectly complimented
by the instruction given in I Peter 4:1&2 "Therefore, since Christ
suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who
has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the
rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of
God." See how that's phrased--
"arm yourselves." In other words, make the decision to put on this
attitude, choose to suffer inward or outward pain rather than give in to selfish
desires, in order to please God, just as Christ did. Notice also that when we do this, we are "done with sin." Sometimes we have to give up what we want. Sometimes we must endure hard times. But when we choose God over the flesh, sin in our lives is conquered. The points of temptation I mentioned at the beginning, that is, giving up when God doesn't bail us out right away, and giving in to sinful desires, are no longer traps for us.
Conscious Effort All of this requires conscious involvement, and it means having your self under control. 1 Peter 4:7 says to be "clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray;" 5:8-10 starts off the same way and takes it further. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast." Which brings us back to Standing Firm. We must count the cost. We must each take up our cross. And we must prepare ourselves to stand firm till the end. Now, as I close, I'll share something that I encountered the day I was writing my notes for this teaching. I have a copy of Oswald Chamber's "My Utmost for His Highest" on my bookshelf. I don't usually read it, but this particular day I was drawn to it. I read the entry for the day, July 7. It began with the verse I'd already found to include here, Mathew 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate..." The entry goes on to say, "If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint or cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. ...If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practised. ...Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is bringing many 'sons' unto glory, and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. God's grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milksops. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble." And so I encourage you-- make the effort; choose the way of God above everything else. It truly is the noble way. God bless. -S. | space |
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