Personal Choices

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day:   Ephesians 5:1-2

 You are God’s dear children, so try to be like him. 2 Live a life of love. Love others just as Christ loved us. He gave himself for us—a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.

Memory verse: Romans 8:32 ►

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Today's reading: GENESIS 18-19 MATTHEW 6:1-18

Personal Choices

Jesus had some 'hard sayings'. That is Jesus said some things that are extremely hard to understand and hard to understand why He said them the way He did.

Matthew 5:22-47 holds some of those hard sayings. He starts by talking about the laws the people had grown up with. The first is a commandment.

"Don't commit adultery". Jesus says that if a man looks at a woman in lust, he is already guilty of adultery. He uses the word 'look'. Then He says that if your eye makes you sin, pluck it out-and-if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Jesus knew that an eye or a hand would never be guilty of sin. If you wish to argue that point, find one instance in all of history where a man's hand or eye has actually caused a sin. It has never happened. Why did Jesus say it that way?

He knew we, the human race, from the beginning to the end will always try to place blame. In the sixties, there was a comedian who used this for a laugh and would say, "The devil made me do it". If the devil makes you do something, how will the devil be 'cut off or plucked out'. The devil never has made anyone do anything. Yes, the enemy contrives myriad ways of temptation but the choice is always ours.

It is us-we sin-no one else is responsible for our own sin-no one answers but us until we choose Jesus. He answers for our sin because He has washed it all away. Man has been 'cut off' from God since the beginning when Adam sinned and tried to blame it on Eve. Then, God's plan for Jesus to die and pay for our sins and reunite us with God unfolded and became fact.

Further reading in Matthew 5  records more of Jesus' sayings.

If you make a promise, don't swear by heaven, it is God's throne; don't swear by the earth, it is the Lord's; don't swear by Jerusalem, it is the city of the great King; don't even swear by your own head(your name, I believe). This is because you do not control one thing except the choices you make. None of us can control an outcome. If someone asked you a question, the answer, according to Jesus, is either yes or no. No excuses or reason-only yes or no.

Jesus is teaching us to be truthful with ourselves and others. He wants us to look in the mirror and admit our limitations-we are not Lord-He is. He controls the outcomes, not us.

Imagine a world without lies. This is almost impossible to even imagine, right? But, Jesus then says something else that is impossible for us in verse 48:

 "So you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Really? We must be perfect? That is a setup for failure, is it not? No. Jesus is saying, "Be in Me" as I am in the Father".

John 14: 19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

Living in Jesus is our life. Being seen as perfect in Christ is our life, whether we believe we are worthy or not, we are in Jesus. We may not understand it, but we must accept it. This is partly what is meant when the scripture says:

"...Walk humbly before your God." Micah 6:8

Anyone who seeks God and His kingdom knows that when we look at ourselves beside God's Holy Word, that we know that we have no righteousness of our own but a divine righteousness that comes from Him alone.

Philippians 3:9 ►and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

The only thing we control is our own mind. The 'self-control' in Galatians 5:22&23 is the divine control of the Holy Spirit. This is a personal choice every waking moment of our lives. Will we obey or not? Will we give our control over to the Divine heart of God or will we not?

Let your answer be yes or no...

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

I have sinned. Forgive me-have mercy on me. I try to control things outside of my mind. Allow me Your wisdom to choose wisely. Thank you,

Precious and faithful Father,

In the name of Jesus,

Amen