choice

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

… so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:10-11

There’s not much in life that you can count on with certainty, except for death and taxes as they say. 

However, as surely as we’ll die and as surely as we’ll be taxed by the government, there is something else that we can be certain of—and it’s that every single one of us will acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.

You don’t have to agree with that statement; however, you’ll still be wrong. Even if you don’t believe in what the Bible says, it doesn’t make it any less true. 

As I pointed out in a recent post about salvation, if the Christian is wrong and you’re right about what happens after we die, then you’ve lost nothing. 

However if the Christian is correct about the afterlife and you’re wrong, you’ve lost a whole lot. So, just using plain old logic and nothing else, it’s better to err on the side with the least possible loss.

Therefore, with the thought in mind that every human being who has ever lived will someday confess that Jesus is Lord and came in the flesh as God’s Son—what do you choose to believe today?

The real question is this: Will you choose to accept Christ as Lord now while you can of your own free will?

Or will you do it when Jesus comes back to earth—though not by choice but by submission and fearful respect paid to the almighty God?

The choice is yours as to when you acknowledge that Jesus came as God in the flesh, was crucified for your sins, and was resurrected by the Father.

I hope that you’ll make that choice now, willingly. 

Because, if not, when you do recognize Christ as Lord, it will be too late for you. The time will have expired and your eternal destiny will already have been sealed—a destiny forever cut off from God and His everlasting love.

Today—right now—it’s not too late. Accept Jesus into your heart as Lord. Acknowledge your sin and brokenness, and ask Him for forgiveness.

Repent and make a change in your life to live in service to Jesus—loving God and doing good to others.

Don’t wait to make a decision as important as eternity. 

You don’t have to be perfect to become a Christian. That’s what Jesus is for. He wants you right now, just as you are. He’ll work on you later on, forming you into the person He wants you to become. 

Pray and ask him into your life, acknowledging him as your Savior and the only true path to God the Father. Works won’t get you into Heaven; only faith in Jesus will. 

And today, you still have that choice. Tomorrow may be too late.

You Have a Choice Every Moment of Every Day

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

Every day you have a choice of how you want to approach life. In fact, every moment of every day, you hold within yourself the power to decide whether to be happy or not.

The catch is that that’s easier said than done. It’s quite easy to say you have all the power in your hands, but it’s something else to actually live that way. 

There are many reasons why this is so. Each day, there are a myriad of forces that come against us and make our decision to rest in joy and happiness more difficult. 

These forces can come in the form of unexpected car repairs, challenges at work, relationships that become strained and nearly unbearable, troubles with your kids, physical ailments, and the list could go on and on. 

While we might have every intention of maintaining a positive mental attitude, when we end up on the side of the road with a flat tire in rush hour traffic, that intention is easy to fly right out the window. 

No amount of positive confession is going to make the tire patch and inflate itself without your lifting a finger. 

So, what is the answer when we’re faced with unforeseen challenges? 

I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers. All I can pass along are techniques that I’ve come across and have put to use in my own life. And certainly I haven’t always been successful at doing this. 

I believe that one of the keys to success in maintaining a positive outlook during even the most trying of times is to JUST DO IT.

You may be saying to yourself right now that that “advice” is not very helpful at all. And I certainly couldn’t blame you for thinking that. 

You see, however, that your approach to your day, your week, and your life actually begins with your mindset. You have to have a burning desire, a deep-seated need to realize joy in your life no matter what. 

When you truly want to live a positive-minded life, a life that recognizes and takes in joy from the world around it, then you’ll transform your existence. 

A deep longing to see joy and hope in your life will take you far along your journey of actually realizing that joy. 

In fact, this desire forms the platform for all other efforts needed to live a joy-filled life. Without this passionate desire to see joy, you’ll fall flat in your efforts at the first sign of trouble. 

When you get a phone call about a bill you forgot to pay, your mood will go sour and your whole demeanor will change. You’ll say to yourself, “I knew it wouldn’t last. I knew something bad would happen sooner or later.”

You may even take a little satisfaction in the fact that you “knew” it all along. However, this is exactly what you don’t want to do. 

Don’t give yourself the satisfaction of saying, “I told you so,” to yourself. Your demeanor and state-of-mind will only snowball downhill from there. 

Instead, maintain your resolve to find some kind of joy in the situation, no matter how small it might be. Determine that this situation will work out for the best no matter what. 

You have a choice, every moment of every day, which way you want to take your attitude—either in a positive direction or in a negative one. It’s totally up to you.

No one else can make this decision for you, as it totally rests in your hands. What you decide to do will determine how the next minute, the next hour, and even the next day will go for you. 

Make the most of every opportunity—whether it seems at first negative or positive. Determine to find joy in the moment. 

It will take some practice to follow through with this habit, but the long-term results will be well worth it. You’ll slowly but surely experience more true joy in your life.

The Lasting Way to Deal With Life’s Difficulties

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

Maybe you’re like me and really dislike dealing with the many struggles of everyday life.

No matter how tired I become of them, these struggles continue relentlessly, however.

I wish life were simpler and easier to take. So many mornings I force myself to get out of bed, only to realize I have to face another day of drudgery. I stumble into the shower to freshen up, hopeful I can get energized enough to face the day. Surely there’s more to life than this, isn’t there?

You’ve probably been there yourself. Just wondered why you’re here on this earth and what the meaning of it all is.

I’ve felt stuck, trapped, useless, like there’s no point in going on. I gotten mad at life and mad at God for putting me here on this earth with no real purpose in doing so. Or maybe I do have a purpose — just to suffer until one day I don’t wake up or until Jesus comes back.

Not a very pretty picture, is it? Have you ever felt this way? Maybe 100 times? 1000 times?

So, what’s the answer?

There are many approaches you could take if you’re at this kind of place in your life — philosophical, practical, positive, negative, Christian, atheistic.

The best way I could advise anyone (myself included) on how to deal with these sometimes overwhelming thoughts is simply to trust.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding (Prov. 3:5).

Trust that there’s a God. That He’s big and He loves you. That He’s got your back and He wants the best for you.

As far as I can tell, this is really all we’ve got. There’s nothing else much certain in this world (except death and taxes as they say).

I’ve returned to the above verse countless times in my adult life. Sometimes I completely forget about it. At other times I recall it to mind, but I quickly dismiss it.

At those times I think, If God were really trustworthy and really cared about me, I wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.  

Deep down I think these kinds of thoughts originate from the dark side, planted there to keep me from completely trusting God, from giving myself fully to Him and His will.

In these times I have tough choices to make. Do I listen to the Holy Spirit whispering truth in my ear? Or do I let my flesh take over, allowing myself to wallow in self-pity and even self-loathing.

I’ve learned over the years that this critical point is where everything can turn — either for good or for bad.

Trust God and feel better. Or give in to doubt, fear, and uncertainty. My rebellious nature loves to just say, Forget it. I’m not trying any longer.

god-594709_1280.jpg

But that doesn’t get me anywhere, especially not in the long run. The result is what much of my life has looked like — a very long cycle of earnestly drawing close to God, then bouncing away from him in rebellion, very similar to how the like poles of two magnets repel each other when they get close.

The point of all this? Only to say that as I’ve matured into a full-blown middle-aged adult, I’m finally coming to some realization that it’s time to stop all that sort of nonsense and just embrace God. Every day. All the time. On good days and bad. When things are going how I want them to, and especially when they’re not.  

I have to make the choice to trust God and His goodness — over and over, day after day.

Fitness professional Gail Pyne hits the nail on the head,

Whenever I have made a substantive lasting change to my life, it has always been due to a decision that I have made, not because someone told me to do something differently. The choice to change (and it IS a choice) must come from within.

Have I arrived? Certainly not. Will I keep trying, even when I want to quit? I hope so.

Do you have thoughts or reactions you’d like to share?

 

olga-delawrence-372971.jpg

Photo by Olga DeLawrence on Unsplash