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The Choice is Yours

    Before you execute any action, sinful or righteous, you have to make the conscious decision to do so. Neither Satan nor Jesus suddenly takes over us and makes us do something without us first saying yes, then doing. Sometimes people say yes to Satan and he does take over, but Jesus never will. He always gives us the freedom to choose what we will do and when. Will we listen to His leading, or choose otherwise?

    The reality of freedom is both a relief, and quite frightening. Our lives are completely left in our hands. What if we mess up? Well, thankfully, Jesus has provided us with grace and forgiveness for those times because they will come along. He even turns things back around in our favor in those instances. But what really is amazing is that He lets us choose Him or not. He has already chosen us, but we get the freedom to choose what we want. Those of us that have made that decision know that He is both the right choice and the best choice, but He let us figure that out on our own.

    I want to encourage you and warn you today. Your life is in your hands. Never act as if you can't get out of something because you always have a choice. You either choose the temporal pleasures of this world, or you choose the eternal delight of Jesus Christ. That's no one else's fault or choice but your own. Only you are responsible for the direction your life goes. I pray that you choose Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (NIV)

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (ESV)

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (ESV)

Galatians 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (ESV)

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (ESV)

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (ESV)

Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (ESV)

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