Choices

"I have set before you this day, life and good, and death and evil.  Choose life, that you and your descendants may live."  Deuteronomy 30:15, 19

God has such a marvelous way of letting us know we are a people of choices.  Life and good things exist as one of our choices.  The other choice is described as death and evil.  No matter how hard we try to fathom the concept of a loving God sending people to an eternity of condemnation, the Bible teaches we make that choice ourselves.

Remember Noah, of the floodwater days?  He lived in an era when wickedness was the way of life for almost all of mankind. Scripture describes that generation by letting us know "every imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of man was evil continually."  We might readily suggest God had lost control.  Satan himself must have been the controlling force.  But while it seems that way, the actual decision of each and every person destroyed by the flood had chosen the way of wickedness and evil.

We often say, "the devil made me do it," when offering an excuse for our bad behavior.  We think in terms of Satan having control over us, while God is letting us know the only power Satan has is that which we willingly give him.  If he really controls us, it's because we made the decision to allow it.

The ultimate control was that of God when he called a halt to all unrighteousness and wickedness through the flood of destruction.  He destroyed the life of every individual who had chosen to disregard him, choosing rather the way of evil.  Only Noah and the faithful of his family were spared.

We can look at generation after generation from Bible days until today, and come to appreciate and believe our God is in control.  We are his by creation and redemption.  We belong to him.  Those who put their trust in God and faithfully choose the life of loving him, obeying him and inviting him to reside in their hearts, will be participants in the "life and good" God promises.

Read the verse again.  This time, determine which choice you are making.  It's a decision of eternal proportions, but also a decision each of us must make.

"I have set before you this day, life and good, and death and evil.  Choose life, that both you and your descendants may live."  Deuteronomy 30:15, 19

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