The Power to Choose
When God created us, He gave us the ability to choose. We have been given “The power of choice”. Our lives are framed by the choices we make every day – from the moment we wake up until we go to bed, we make hundreds of “choices” during the day. That’s why I’ve learned, there is no such thing as luck— good or bad. In fact, I’ve taken the term completely out of my vocabulary. The world of the spirit does not operate on luck. It
operates and responds to the choices we make, good or bad. It’s not luck that determines how things turn out in our lives—it’s choices. When we make good ones, things go well for us. When we make bad ones, things go wrong.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Because good people make bad choices.
I’m not referring to trials and challenges and persecution we experience because we serve God. I’m talking about people who are always waiting on God to do something but they are not taking responsibility for the choices they’ve made that landed them there in the first place.
Eg, people who need finances. They will make confessions and put in prayer requests and that’s important but they don’t tithe and they are not sowing.
To a large extent, your quality of life today is a product of the choices you made yesterday. And the choices you make today—the words you choose to speak, the thoughts you choose to meditate on, the people you choose to associate with—will determine your quality of life in the future.
Proverbs 12:26 NKJV
The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray.
You are the righteousness of God. You must choose your friends carefully.
And if you want to have friends, then you must be friendly.
Proverbs 18:24 NKJV
A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
You must be able to make choices and decisions without being influenced by others. Sometimes we are more concerned with what others think of us than what God thinks. So we worship at the altar of acceptance. But in trying to be accepted, there is the danger of compromising the very things we are called to stand for. What has helped me over the years is this, When you are in a compromising situation, that is not the time to get weaker. That’s the time, you get tougher. God gave us the power to choose. We can either choose life or we can choose death. If you choose life, the result will be blessing. If you choose death, the result will be the curse.
Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.
God is telling us to choose life. Why? Because the choices you make today will determine where you end up tomorrow. The choices you make don’t only affect you but affects your descendants as well. So be careful how you choose. If you want your children to live, then choose life. Now! If you are a parent and you’ve made some bad choices in the past that has affected your children in a negative way, then I don’t want you to condemn yourself.
Stop feeling guilty and stop beating yourself up. That is not of God. You can now choose to pray for them. You can love them and you can believe God to draw them closaer to Him.
Here are two examples that will help you understand the importance of choices.
Jonathan Edwards was a great preacher. In fact he was known as the father of the great awakening in the US.
His father and great-grand father were also preachers of the gospel. So with Jonathan Edwards, when they traced more than 400 of his direct
descendants, this is what they found: 2 Vice Presidents; 6 congressman; 14 university presidents; 100 professors; 100 ministers of the gospel or missionaries;
120 were lawyers, judges and doctors. They also found many authors, editors
and journalists. Almost every major American industry had an ancestor of Jonathan Edwards involved in it.
Then they traced back the family-tree of a man called Abraham Jakes who also lived in the latter half of the 1700’s.
Jakes was a murderer who never believed in God. Among the over 1200 direct descendants traced, an astounding pattern was found. The results showed 400 alcoholics and drug addicts, 810 paupers, 130 convicted criminals, 80 habitual thieves and pickpockets and 7 murderers who were hanged or died in an electric chair. Of the 1200, only 20 ever learned a trade and half of them learned it in prison. So those two examples should prove to us that the choices we make, not only affect us, but also the future
generations to come, But here’s the good news. Your last choice is not your last choice. You can make a new choice that will set you on a new course that will bring about a new cycle of blessing in your life.
Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.
Notice how God leaves the choice up to us and if you are not sure what to choose, He encourages you to “choose life”.God cannot make the choice for you. He will inspire you, He will empower you; He will minister to you and speak to you, but He will not force your hand or choose for you.
Edgar A. Guest
You are the person who has to decide, whether you’ll do it or toss it aside.
You are the person who makes up your mind, whether you’ll lead or will linger behind. Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar, or just be contented to stay where you are.
Your choice! Do you know that you are as close to God today as you’ve chosen to be. God can't decide for you but once you make a decision, He will back you completely with His power in order to carry out that decision.
Everyone has the right to choose, but once you’ve chosen, you become a servant to that choice. So be careful how you choose. Everyone has the freedom to choose, but you don't have the freedom to choose the
consequences of your choice. Now someone might say, “yes, but the things that have happened to me were not a result of my choices, I never chose that”. I agree with you, but how you respond now, to what happened to you, is your choice.
Joshua 24:15 NKJV
And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua saw that the children of God were being tempted to serve other gods as soon as they got into the land. But he said he is going to serve the Lord. Watch out when God starts blessing you and raising you up. Don’t get all puffed up and think you all that. Stay humble and keep serving God.
1 Kings 18:21 NKJV
And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter
between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”
But the people answered him not a word.
Stop playing church. Stop being on both sides. Don’t be a fence sitter. Stop being lukewarm. Decide which team and side you are on. Jesus chose you.
Will you choose Him today?
John 15:16 NKJV
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Jesus wanted to gather them but they refused. They made a choice.
Matthew 23:37-38 AMPC
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, murdering the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a mother fowl gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate (abandoned and left destitute of God's help).
Was that’s God will, for their house to be without help? No. A thousand times No. He wanted to gather them, protect them, provide for them BUT THEY REFUSED. And it’s the same today. God wants to come in and be their God but many people want Jesus to be Savior but not their Lord.
So today, I encourage you to choose life. The prodigal son made some bad choices. He decided he was going to party and spend all that he had. And his choices landed him in big trouble. But He a made a new choice and came back to His Father. His Father was waiting with open arms to forgive him, embrace him and give him a fresh start. Your heavenly Father is not angry with you. Even if you made some bad choices, He still loves you and is waiting to restore you. But you must repent and open the door to Jesus and make a new choice.
Revelation 3:20 NKJV
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me
Even though you can’t go back and make a brand new start, you can start from now and make a brand new ending. You can set a new course by making a new choice that will create a new cycle of blessing in your life.
God is not counting up all your mistakes, sins, and wrongdoings. He has cancelled them.
2 Corinthians 5:19-20 AMPC
It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their
trespasses [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor).
Stop blaming yourself. Stop blaming others. Stop blaming the government.
Stop blaming your parents. Forgive yourself, forgive others and start making new choices that will create a better future for you.
Our God is the Great Rectifier, the Great Changer, and the Great One of Grace that turns our mistakes for our good.
Pray For wisdom to make better choices in the future. For restoration. For increase, For abundance
Lester Holland
