What Are You Choosing?

This week we are continuing to look into what it means to follow Jesus by examining His calling to follow and obey. If you’re anything like me, both of those actions are incredibly difficult, so we need to prepare our hearts first.

Holy Spirit, I know my natural inclination is to obey my wants and desires instead of following and obeying You. Open my heart to the sometimes difficult truth in Your word and help me apply it to my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Romans 6:16 (NLT)

16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

This teaching is hard. I don’t want to be a slave to anything! Paul’s words likely created an even stronger reaction to the early church in Rome. Their ancestors’ enslavement in Egypt had been taught to them and remembered through the religious celebration of Passover. They themselves probably felt like slaves to the Roman Emperor Nero, made infamous by his brutal persecution of Christians, because they did not get to choose whether they obeyed him or not.

I’m so grateful we serve a God who, in His kindness, gives us a choice. He could have designed people like robots who obey a series of pre-programmed commands, or a tyrant who didn’t let us make choices. Instead, God gave us the freedom to choose if we obey Him (knowing full well we wouldn’t,) and that He would have to create a rescue plan through Jesus, which is also our choice to accept or reject.

Paul states in today’s verse that we are slaves of whatever we choose to obey. What are you choosing to obey right now?

He goes on to say that our choice to either obey sin or God has serious consequences. With so much riding on what we choose, how can we know if we are making the right choice? Thankfully, Paul also gives us the answer with the question: sin leads to death while God leads to righteous living.

Are your choices leading to death or righteous living?

This question is a lot to process, so I recommend taking time to do so in whatever way you think through difficult questions. Here are some suggestions to get you started: take a walk alone and think about your circumstances. Write down the question and pay attention to what feelings it stirs in you. Ask a trusted family member or friend to think through it with you.

The good news in today’s verse is that you and I have a choice. If you don’t like where your choices are leading you, you can change that!

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you choose to obey God today.

Ask Him to teach you His commands and how to follow them.

May the Lord bless and keep you today, and hold you in His loving hand.