Article: Your Choices Determine Your Destiny | Stephen Lal Abraham, Banglore
“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live (Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT)
The Bible teaches that man has the ability to make moral choices and that he is responsible for those choices. You can miss God’s destiny for your life by your own choices. God allows us to make choices. We sin because we choose to. We can’t blame “Fate,” or God. “A man’s own folly ruins his life, / yet his heart rages against the LORD” (Proverbs 19:3). When a man foolishly wrecks his life, he may yet insist on blaming God, or perhaps “Fate.” In this way, he persists in his folly. Since choices often result in eternally significant consequences, we must choose in line with God’s principles.
Even when you mess up, God can turn disaster into destiny. It is never too late to have his perfect will in your life. However, your destiny is your choice. By seeking a closer relationship with your Creator, you can discover and fulfill what He has created you to do. Livings out your God ordain destiny will give you greater fulfillment, direction, stability, significance, identity, and provision in your life. Do not settle for less than the best God has for you, which is to find and fulfill your destiny every day that you live. There are three C’s that we should remember as we move forward in our Spiritual journey, that is Choice, Chance, and Change.
The Choices you make, will determine the Chances you receive, and the Chances you take, will determine the Changes you see. There will be difficult choices to make; risky chances to take; and resulting changes to accept. Whenever you make a Choice, consider these three things –the will of God, the good will of others, and the peace in your own heart. There will be times when these three will conflict, and that is why I have stated them according to their sequence and Priority.
Choices carry consequences. In Joshua 24:15 says, “choose for yourself today whom you will serve.” Even the eleventh chapter of Hebrews is filled with illustrations of choices: In Heb. 11:2 Abel chose God’s way and gave an excellent sacrifice than Cain. In Heb. 11:5 Enoch chose to walk in God’s way and walked right into the presence of God. In Heb., 11:3 Abraham chose to live a life of faith. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph all chose to trust in the Lord and were blessed by God. Choices — that is just the way it is in life. Hebrew 11:25 we read that Moses made a choice. The world’s prestige is usually comprised of four components: the right family, money, education and position. Moses had it all, the family of Pharaoh, all the money of Egypt, the best education, and a position second only to Pharaoh. Yet he did not consider all of that an equal to the call of God in his life. So he chose against the world’s prestige. Moses made a choice and yet that choice is not much different from the choices you and I must make every day. In every age of history, on every page of scripture, God allows man to make their own choice. A narrow gate or a wide gate, A narrow road or a wide road, Build on a rock or build on sand. Serve God or serve riches. Be numbered among the sheep or be numbered among the goats. God gives us choices and each choice we make carries consequences. What choices will you make today?
Keep in mind , Life has its way of testing your faith, obedience, courage, commitment and uprightness there will be Ironical situations, irrational reactions and Illogical results – how you react to these situations will determine how much and how fast you grow. Be appreciative and accepting of everything you go through and you will see beauty in everything. Keep your expectations always low, do not make your opinion unnecessarily put in parade, and keep your judgment under your toe. Be keen to listen, keen to learn and keen to understand. Accepting someone’s opinion does not mean we support it and disagreeing with someone does not mean we hate them. You do not have to compromise your convictions to be compassionate. Love freely, give generously, and serve whole-heartedly. A great servant will keep climbing higher, and will soon be a master servant – in command over many servants, while an average master remains complacent in ruling over a few.
A final advice that in my personal opinion is eternally the greatest advice I can give, it is this – beyond the framework of Knowledge, beyond the insight of understanding, beyond the mystery of wisdom, far beyond the depths of maturity, beyond the soundness of rationality, and beyond logic itself, lies the unwavering, unconditional ; unshakable Love of God- seek it. When you’re filled by it, no mountain is too high to climb and no valley too deep to descend. When every tool you possess has failed, the Love of God that you have sowed into other people’s lives will bring about an unexpected situation that will turn things to your favor. Divine Love does wonders. Give it the highest priority in the list of virtues to possess. With that, let me conclude with an exhortation, I encourage each of you to be someone’s Strength, to be someone’s Inspiration, to be someone’s reason to be successful in his or her life’s journey. Jesus said “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests but take an interest in others, too.” (PHILIPPIANS 2:3-4)
Stephen Lal Abraham (Bangalore)
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