Godly Choices

Our lives are filled with endless opportunities to choose this or choose that. Some choices we make are as benign as picking out a color to paint the walls of our bedroom while others can mean life or death. We make these choices every minute of every day sometimes without even giving it much thought. But the fact is the choices we make can have long lasting consequences if we choose to go down the wrong road.

Before letting the Israelites cross over the Jordan and into the Promised Land, God not only gave Moses the law and statutes but told him to tell the people “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall posses.” Deuteronomy 5:32

The next section of text in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is called the “Shema” which is Hebrew for “Hear!” The text tells us to love only God, by loving Him with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.  “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

God was making it clear how important it is to follow His directions. His instructions should be the first thing we see out of our eyes and the first thing we think of as we hide His laws in our heart. God goes on to predict that when the Israelites are in the Promised Land and have eaten and are full that they should not forget that it was the Lord who brought them out of bondage in Egypt. That He is our Sustainer-Creator.

But now in 2 Samuel chapter 6 King David is beginning to forget about the Lord’s commandments and statutes. David, desiring to have the Ark of the Covenant brought to Jerusalem, picks thirty thousand of his best men to go with him to retrieve it. The Philistines had returned the Ark on a cart, so David thought that this new and improved way to transport the ark seemed more efficient. He carelessly commands that the Ark be loaded onto a new cart and hauled by oxen rather than the way God commanded by the hands of the priests holding onto poles. At one point the oxen stumble causing the Ark to rock back and forth. Uzzah, one of the men walking along side, puts his hand out to stabilize the Ark and is struck dead by God on the spot.

It’s so important that we know what God requires of us. It’s so important that we do things the way that God has instructed us within the pages of the book. It’s so easy to want to follow the way the world conduct business, to do things in a more efficient way but the reality is that God has warned us to stay close to Him and to follow only Him. If we keep applying His commands daily then He promises to prolong our days and that it will go well with us.

So if we walk with God on a daily basis and if we keep His word as close as frontlets on our forehead we will be less likely to follow the world down a path to personal destruction. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus, in 1 Thessalonians 5:17once encouraged us all to “pray without ceasing”. Many have been taught that this means to take quiet time and pray inside of a dark closet. While this practice has its place, we can’t walk every minute of the day with God while locked up in a dark room. 

Make your fellowship-relationship with God a priority throughout your day. Talk to Him the way you would a close friend and you will discover the richness of walking through life with God at your side. God loves us and desires the very best for us and so He has given us rules to make our pilgrimage through life less bumpy. God desires love and affection from His children. Make it a point to talk with Him throughout your day in a very personal way listening for His most awesome reply.