The spending power of God Almighty is governed by the choice of His children. Selah.
We have often expounded on the importance of choice. Our choices can limit the “Unlimited One”. Psalm 78:41, speaking of the children of Israel, “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel”.
Arthur used to give the following example of a limiting choice: A wealthy man had two sons. He asked each of them what they would like to do in life as he wanted to help them to realise their hope for a future. The first son declared he would like to be an architect and design great buildings. The father paid for his education and supported him whilst he attended university, then set him up in business when he had finally qualified.
The second son told his father he wanted to be an ice-cream salesman in their village. There is nothing wrong in selling ice-cream but the son’s choice limited what his father could do to help him. The father bought him a van and the son became the local ice-cream man in the village where they lived.
This is just an example of choice. My choice governs God. Joshua 24 records Joshua summoning the people together. The Lord spoke through him, challenging the people to put away their false gods and make a choice that day to serve the Lord. “Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth, put away the gods……. of Egypt…….choose ye this day whom ye will serve”. Joshua 24: 14-15
I may have made many wrong choices in the past, but whilst I have breath in my body, I have opportunity to choose change. God created us but gave us the power of choice. His sovereignty of choice gloves my responsibility to respond. Where I am and where I end up, depends on the secondary choice of mine, over the primary choice of God.
The quality of my life on this earth is dependent on my choices.
Have you ever considered the trap of “second best”. There are times in our lives when we come to the crossroads of decision. God sets before us an open door. It requires a leap of faith into His divine destiny where we will enter into His fullness of purpose and provision. The choice can be very uncomfortable as we will have to abandon our safe comfort zone and trust our Heavenly Father to fulfil His word to us. Divine destiny beckons us, calls our name to follow the path He has made for us. Our flesh trembles at the thought of unconditional surrender. As I make the first step in choice, God comes alongside of that choice and enables me, with His strength, to walk into my glorious future with Him. God fixes my choice, “He works in to will and to do of His good pleasure”, (Philippians 2:13), for His glory. His glory is not a place where my flesh is comfortable. The will of God for His glory, takes me to a place where I would not go, but when I surrender and make the right choice, He strengthens me to do His will and I find His joy and peace are my companions. It’s the life of God in me! Jesus. I cannot take any credit. He has worked with my unwilling, stubborn will and drawn me into “His chambers”. The King has brought me in!
At the crossroads of decision, the other option is second best. Our flesh likes its comfort zone of security, but God’s divine purpose of fullness and destiny will never be fulfilled by this choice. God will not leave me, nor will His peace, but it will only ever be measure and not fullness. Second best!
Don’t settle for less than God’s best, believe for more!
The “Tame Old Duck” poem, penned by an anonymous writer, could be titled “Second Best”:-
I think my life is a tame old duck,
Wallowing around in the farmyard muck.
It’s fat and lazy with useless wings,
But sometimes when the north wind sings,
And the wild ducks hurtle overhead
It remembers something lost and almost dead,
And it casts a wistful eye,
And it flaps its wings and tries to fly.
It’s fairly content with the state its in,
But it’s not the duck it might have been!
Don’t settle for “fairly content” when our Heavenly Father has provided, through the finished work of Calvary, all the fullness of His Son.
Heavenly Father, fix my choice today, “…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. Joshua 24:15 Not my will, but Thine be done.