Some Choices Matter Greatly

Five-Minute Friday CHOICE

It doesn’t take long for a child to choose between two things. For example, if presented with a piece of candy or a carrot stick, the vast majority of children will choose the candy. As adults we often make choices of far more significance. We choose a spouse, an education, a career, the place we will live, and often the jobs we will do. We choose to live by a certain diet. But one choice of greatest importance many often neglect.

The Choice With the Greatest Implications and Duration

It has been said that we are the choices we make. That is more true than we realize. It can have disastrous or dramatically good results. For example, you become like what you worship. Here is what the Psalmist says in Psalm 115:1-8

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! 2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.

6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.

7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.

8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

Psalm 115:1-8

Alistair Begg often shares truths that can help bring clarity. In his May 12, 2024, devotional “The Valley of Decision” he writes:

“Ruth understood that her decision should not be guided by familiarity, security, or relational prospects. This moment would shape her life and her destiny. Remaining in Moab would mean remaining with the false gods of her upbringing and turning her back on everything she had presumably discovered from Naomi about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Naomi’s God had become Ruth’s God. That is why she decided to stay by Naomi’s side.”

He goes on to say, “Ruth’s decision on the road to Bethlehem points forward to the valley of decision that Jesus calls each of us to stand in: Do you want to be my disciples, or do you want to return to the life you’ve known? Who is there who will forsake his or her father and mother and everything they know—all that represents stability and security—for my sake? (see Luke 14:26). Can we confidently say to Christ, “Where you go, I will go”? Can we declare, “Though the way ahead is unfamiliar and unpopular, still I will follow”?

Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16

How to Identify a Follower of Jesus

Some of Jesus’s disciples made a choice to leave him. Jesus has a question for those who are following him:

“So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’” John 6:67-69

Those disciples became more-and-more like Jesus by choosing him.

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five-Minute Friday link-up.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.