davidbowerkingwood

Life is a Matter of Choices

As experience has shown, life is filled with a series of choices; we make many choices every day. Some choices are insignificant while others may have life-changing consequences; one thing we have hopefully all fully realized is although we are free to make our choices, we are not free to escape the consequences of our choices.

For Christians there is one fundamental decision we have to make that involves every choice and that is the choice of living by faith or living by sight. The Bible is very clear on that point; in 2 Corinthians 5:7 we are specifically told, “We live by faith, not by sight.”

Living by faith means our perceptions of ourselves, our lives, and life in general on this earth is directly influenced by our knowledge of God and God’s plan as revealed in the Bible. It means living our life from a divine viewpoint and not a human viewpoint, of seeing the spiritual significance of our place in God’s family as His children and letting spiritual realities trump earthly realities.

A Spirit Led Life

Living a faith-based life means the Holy Spirit is in control of our lives and we keep a short account with God by regularly confessing our sinful shortcomings to God using 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

We live a purified life before God, free from all unrighteousness as a gift of God’s unmerited, undeserved grace. This does not mean, however, we escape the earthly consequences of bad choices. We must pay the price if we have made bad choices that had bad results.

The sad truth is we all make mistakes and have to deal with the consequences as best we can. The good news is that even when we make those mistakes we still have God on our side waiting for us to confess our mistakes to Him and receive His purification which is always available and freely given to all of His children.

A Work in Progress

In Romans 8:28-30 we are told of the nature and purpose of our mortal lives on this planet, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

It would certainly have been possible for God to immediately call home each individual as they received Christ as their Savior but He chose not to do that. Instead we are left on this earth as a work in progress; we are being conformed to the image of His Son through a vast number of different ways and paths.

The end result, however, is the same for each of us and that is to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes the chisel can hurt as the hammer falls on it, removing a part of us that does not conform but the results are worth the pain.

In Romans 8:18 Paul reminds us, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” We would do well to keep that in mind.