Resources/Articles
The Choices We Make
Do you like the privilege of choice? Are you grateful to live in a country where the “right to choose” can be exercised? Have you wished others would choose for you? Do you blame others for the erroneous choices you make? Are you the one who often says, “I had no other choice?”
It is amazing how some react in somewhat of a cowardly way saying, “You can’t make me!” That means some do not like the choices others make for them. We have no choice but to choose. God gave us this opportunity to choose who we will serve, where we will go, what we will worship, and what we wills ay.
Since we are creatures of choice, it challenges us to consider the reality of our reasoning when it comes to choices. A writer of a letter to the editor of a newspaper berated Christians for preaching their moral convictions to others. He insisted people can only “react to genetic and environmental factors.” He said any preference, whether in “religion, favorite foods, colors, or friends” is not a choice, but “just a brute fact.” Then he implored the reader to “give up the false promises of religion and take up the torch of human reason.” Notice what he said. He concluded his letter by preaching his own convictions and persuading others to do what he does not want others to do - make a choice.
Think about such reasoning when people encourage others to “attend the church of their choice.” If that is a choice people want us to make, then those same people should not be concerned at all when a girl makes a choice to abort a baby. It is her choice. They should not say a word to a boy or girl who are not married and make a choice to have sex. Neither should the be concerned if people make a choice to do drugs. Why should they be concerned if people take the law into their own hands? It is their choice. Why should they be concerned when people take fundamental, absolute, biblical truths and turn them into subjective reasons and philosophies that are culturally foreign to our time? It is their choice. Therefore, why be concerned about the choices anyone makes since people are encouraged to worship God anywhere and any way they choose?
Why we should be concerned about the choices people make religiously or morally is because God hold us responsible (Joshua 24:15; Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10)? Although we can make choices, we need to be careful with our freedom. It is God who said each word and action must be done in Jesus’ name (Colossians 3:17). Therefore, we cannot say one choice is as good as another. You may feel no one can make you do anything, but if you are interested in making the right choice, God can.
