Freedom to Choose

Write From My Heart

August 30, 2020

Freedom to Choose

Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV) excerpts

Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. … But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, … But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

Haggai 1:5, 7 and 2:15, 18 (NIV) all verses use the same phrase:

 …give careful thought (e.g., to your ways, to this, to this day)

            There are people in the world who hold fast to the belief that everything you do has already been determined and that it is impossible to alter anything that has already been determined to be your fate. This is common in many west-world belief systems as well as many science and psychology circles. I could not possibly disagree more! We are creatures of choice from the start. Each day you begin making choices: My alarm just went off so do I get up or hit snooze? What will I wear today? Will I make breakfast or catch something quickly on the way to the office? Will I work late, or save it for tomorrow? Will I go to bed now or read or watch something on TV? Your entire day is a sequence of choices, some choices made with such regularity that they have become habits and routines—but those habits and routines all began by making choices routinely. You can even choose right now to continue reading or scroll to something else. It is your choice.

            We see our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, others at times making poor choices. If you are the parent, you probably wish you could make some choices for them. But you can’t. You can offer advice and hope they take it, but you can’t make decisions for them. And so it is with our gracious Heavenly Father. He wants all to be saved—in fact, this is the very reason for the delay in the return of Christ, the Second Advent.

2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

            There are people even within the Christian community who hold fast to the belief that God picks and chooses (predestines) those whom he wishes to save. To me, my opinion and my heart says this is the saddest of all doctrinal beliefs. For if true, then you have no choice. Proponents of this belief will scratch and hunt through the scriptures to find every place the phrase God’s chosen people is used. They misquote scriptures like the following passage:

Romans 8:29-30 (NIV)

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he [Christ] might be the firstborn among many brothers [us]. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

When taken in context we clearly understand that God always knew there would be those who would choose to follow Him. But he also always knew he would need to sacrifice his only Son in order to redeem them from their fallen choices. This passage is clearly referencing the life of the Christian who chooses to accept Christ and follow his way. Christians choose to conform to Christ (e.g., be like Him). Christians choose to answer the call for repentance (e.g., ask God’s forgiveness). At the point in time Christians are forgiven, they are justified (e.g., just-as-if-I’d never sinned). And when Christ returns, Christians will be glorified, spending eternity with Christ.

God does not wish for anyone to be separated from him. But like a parent, he cannot choose for us, he must present the offer and wait for us to accept.

John 3:16 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

            Earlier in this devotion I noted several verses from Haggai. The proponents of predestination are probably itching for me to use the last phrase of the last verse; and so I will!

Haggai 2:23 (NIV)

…for I have chosen you, declares the LORD Almighty.

            Yes dear friends, God has indeed chosen you!  But the question remains:

Have YOU chosen HIM?