Day 2286 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
Deuteronomy 30:19 NIV
Back in 2006 I was given the chance to learn a couple of very valuable lessons through poor choices that I made all on one day. I have thought about them off and on ever since and they popped in my mind again the other night. So I thought that I would share with you all a couple of my biggest regrets because I think that they may be more common than I realized at the time.
When I graduated from high school my family gave me a seriously cool gift. But being the foolish person I was back then, I decided that I wanted something else. They had spent who knows how much time and thought picking out the exact thing that they wanted to give me, and I turned it down. I ended up having them return it and I used the money to buy something else, something far less special. Something without the special meaning and thought that they had put into what they wanted to do for me. What I chose instead was something that I had always wanted. But it ended up only pulling me away from everyone around me and left me wasting a lot of time all by myself.
I can't tell you how much I regret that decision all those years ago. It's one of those things that I doubt I will ever fully let go of because I now see it as one of the most valuable lessons that I ever learned. And now that I am learning more about faith and making this walk my priority in life, I realize that all of us have done the same thing with God. He offers us this perfect gift of salvation. He took all His time and thought and poured it into planning this perfect gift for us. And we've all turned Him down. We've all chosen sin over His gift of grace because we think it's what we want.
You know, I can't imagine how much it hurt when I told my family that I didn't want that gift. I basically said that I didn't care about what they thought I would like and that I knew better. I can't imagine how much it hurts God when we tell Him that we know better by choosing our own selfish wants and desires over His gift. It's this kind of crushing weight that forces me to want to change and do better. It should inspire all of us to do better.
Friends, God is offering us a gift. It's a gift of peace, of love, of forgiveness, of salvation, of freedom, of eternity. Choosing sin instead isn't okay. It's as foolish as it gets! Right now we have the opportunity to choose between life and death. We get to pick between blessings and curses. We can choose righteousness over wickedness. Please choose life. Choose God. Choose that gift of peace and love and freedom and salvation.
We have to stop turning God away so that we can do what we want. We have to stop refusing His perfect gift for one that only brings problems and pain. We have to stop choosing things that only pull us away from Him and leave us wasting our time all alone doing things that will never help us. We seriously have to stop thinking that we know better and realize that our choices will never lead to the gift of salvation that God offers us. Don't refuse that gift anymore!
Luckly for us, he forgives us and knows noone is perfect. We are human and all mess up and all do things that we later regret. We are forgiven and we can lay those things at the feet of Jesus and walk away without them. Thank you Father for the gift of life.
ReplyDeleteAmen, really well said! I've learned the best that we can do is learn from our mistakes and then leave them in the past so we can do better going forward. Thankfully, He gives us every opportunity to learn and change. Sometimes we mess up, but that's never the final word!
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