Have you ever thought about how God feels about the power of choice? The Bible says in 1 John 4:19 (NKJV) “We love Him because He first loved us.” Meaning that God chooses us which in turn gives us the ability to choose Him.
How did God choose us? The Bible tells us in Ephesians 1:4 (TPT) “And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence.”
God actually chose us from the foundation of the world. God wanted a relationship with us so much that He counted the cost before He created us. It wasn’t as if Adam sinned, and then the realization hit God that He had to come up with a different plan. He knew before He created Adam that Adam would sin, so before any of us were created, a plan was already in place to make atonement for Adam’s sin.
You might ask yourself. Well, if God knew that Adam would sin why didn’t he just remove the power of choice? Why was there an ability for Adam to choose the wrong thing if God already knew the high cost He would have to pay for Adam’s sin? I think that is very telling of how God feels about choice. God knew how things would play out and still set in motion the ability for us to choose Him back. Relationships are not true relationships unless we have the power to choose.
If you think about choice in human terms, most of us understand how powerful choice is. When people feel like they have no options, often they feel like victims. In a friendship or a romantic relationship if one person demands the other person only choose things that are acceptable to that person the relationship is often considered abusive and will become destructive.
Think about if we served a God like that. What if there was no ability to choose in the garden? What would that have looked like? It may have saved some heartache, but would we truly have a relationship with God? Could we really call it a relationship if all power of choice is removed?
I think what strengthens our relationship with God is our ability to choose. I think it says a lot about a God who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves but still wants us to choose Him. Choice in relationships is a matter of the heart. An abusive person can remove all choices to get another person to choose them, but do they really have that person’s heart? You can choose to be compliant in your actions, but you can still withhold your heart from that person.
Choose Who You Will Serve
In Joshua 24, we see Joshua at the end of his life recounting to the Israelites all God had done for them. God had led them miraculously out of slavery in Egypt, protected and provided for them in the wilderness, and led them into the promised land giving them victory over their enemies. Joshua was exhorting the people to stay faithful to God.
Joshua 24:15 (NKJV) “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
I think this kind of choice holds true today. Our world is full of options for who we could serve and/or worship. Career, money, other people, ourselves….the list is endless. However, when we choose to serve the Lord, our priorities can line up accordingly. Any of these things in and of themselves are not bad, but anything we devote our worship to that is not God will end in destruction.
In Matthew 6:33(TPT), Jesus is speaking and He says “So above all, constantly seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness, then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly.”
In Psalm 37:3-5 (TPT) King David writes, “Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in his eyes. Fix your heart on the promises of God, and you will dwell in the land, feasting on his faithfulness. Find your delight and true pleasure in Yahweh, and he will give you what you desire the most. Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust him along the way, you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly!”
When we choose God, we are choosing to partner with God to be the best version of ourselves possible. Sometimes when we can’t see how things will work out it is easy to doubt and want to go our own way. However, if we can trust God through what looks impossible it will turn out better than we ever imagined. Remember, friend God is the only one who can see the whole picture from beginning to end.
Choose to Worship
There is another powerful choice we have the opportunity to participate in with God. It is the choice to praise God even when we don’t understand our circumstances. Oftentimes, it is in the times we are hurting the most when we want to understand what God is doing. I think sometimes we mistakenly feel that if we just could understand then it would bring us comfort. Maybe that could be true but probably not.
Hebrews 13:15 (NKJV) “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
When I look back over my life and the processes God brought me through, what developed in me the most was trusting in God. I had to trust that God was faithful, that He would do what He said He would do, and that He would be faithful to fulfill His promises to me. Of course, I had moments of doubt, but they were quickly followed by times of repentance and once again submitting my will to God’s will.
I believe it is a privilege on our part and speaks volumes about where our heart is when we choose to praise God in the midst of circumstances we just do not understand. God does not cause bad things to happen to us. Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world. But when we say to God, I don’t understand even yet I will praise you, we wreak havoc on the kingdom of darkness.
God is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is the God of the universe and creator of all things. He does not need us. He wants us. He sacrificed His only son to have us. He will constantly and consistently pursue us to the ends of the earth. God also provided a way for us to choose Him. He did not want to be a tyrant or manipulate us into a decision. He wants a relationship with us. What a privilege to choose a God like that!
Check out these other blog posts!
Find Your Way Back Home to Yourself by Lisa Crowder. https://lisacrowder.substack.com/p/find-your-way-back-home-to-yourself
The Life You Want by Ashley Olivine. https://www.ashleyolivine.com/the-life-you-want/
A Place to Belong: What Influences Our Choices by MelAnn http://unidentity.online/a-place
Simple Is Better – Oh, the Choices That We Make! by Dianne Vielhuber