I do.
When I mess up, I choose to do nothing, or I choose to ask for forgiveness.
When I say the wrong thing, I choose to carry that around with me, or I choose to make it right.
When I wrong God, I choose to pray to Him and repent, or I choose to allow that to separate me from Him.
When I face a challenge or a decision, I choose whether to seek God's will for me, or I choose to charge forward with no pause.
When I am angry, I choose to take that anger out on others or myself, or I choose to take it to God, and let Him take care of it.
When I am sad, I choose to become depressed, or I choose to praise God and dwell on His promises.
When I have been wronged, I choose revenge, or I choose to trust God to handle the situation for me.
When I am confused, I choose to talk to everybody but God, or I choose to take it to Him first.
When I am lost, I choose to seek direction in this world, or I choose to follow the road God has made for me.
When I am hurt, I choose to feel sorry for myself, or I choose to draw from that hurt in order to help others.
There is ALWAYS a choice.
Who sets me free? Who gives me life? Who gives me purpose? Who helps me move forward?
That would be GOD, but the CHOICES are up to ME.
How can I make the RIGHT choice?
God has pre-counseled me thru His commandments! If I live by them, I walk by the Spirit...I am being led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-25)...
I show my love for Christ (John 14:15, 21) by obeying His commandments as outlined in the gospel...I walk in love (Eph. 5:2; 2 John 1:6)...by obedience to His commandments.
God's Commandments...they are the focus of Satan's attack in deceiving us. He seeks to get our focus off WHAT God said to WHY God said it, thereby questioning God. He did so w/Eve and continues. He perverted commandments when tempting Jesus (Matt. 4) and Jesus resisted by using 'rightly dividing' God's commandments. Such is the ONLY way to resist temptation and the ONLY way to expose false doctrine. False doctrine is characterized by the minimizing of obedience, stressing 'trust' and 'belief only'. Truth is recognized by the setting forth of obedience to doctrine (Romans 6:17-18). There is a 'form of doctrine' that MUST be delivered in order to be born anew (John 3:3-5). It must be OBEYED, from the heart. It is not by prayer. Prayer is for one who has obeyed the applicable commands of the gospel as a sinner. Once, born anew, you THEN have the right to pray and address God as YOUR heavenly Father, because you have become His child. The simple proof of all this is seen in the fact that Jesus died for all (John 3:16), yet is the author of salvation to those who OBEY Him (Heb. 5:8-9). You obey HIM by obeying the COMMANDMENTS that He gave.
Your attitude toward God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit is revealed thru your attitude toward the commandments and your obedience. This is how you evidence your humble-ness...submission...your meekness/pureness of heart...your mourning of sin...your poor-ness of spirit...your desire for mercy...your hunger/thirst for righteousness...your desire to have peace w/God. All are connected with God's word (commandments) which are for our good...ALWAYS, as acknowledged by Moses (Deut. 6:24-25).
Grace from God was connected with instructions as to how to live (Titus 2:11-12). Love from God was shown thru teaching God's commands (John 15:22-24).
Jesus was hated, not for His acts of healing, but for what He taught. He taught commandments (John 12:49-50). Those 'words' (commandments) were given to the 12 apostles to be preached "into all the world" (John 17:8). They preached those commands (1 Cor. 11:23; 14:37).
Thus, religious truth is distinguished from religious error, as the apostle John wrote: "We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." - 1 John 4:6
Psa 103:17-18 - But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
Rev 1:3 - Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
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