Pray or don't pray, meditate or skip it, and God's righteousness or self-righteousness. These are all choices. There are indeed many God seeking choices we can make.
Speak the truth or deceive, hurry or peace, worry or trust, confess or hide, examine ourselves or distract, own our wrongs or blame.
God gives us power over choice. Some of us will choose evil. Because people choose evil, there will be evil in the world. Wars, exploitation, oppression, and many harmful events will come to pass.
People will die from such choices. What will we choose to do with our hearts and minds?
We can choose to focus upon wrongs in the world or seek to build the kingdom of God. It's our own choice of how we will respond, where we can have some control. We are given power over choice. What we do today will affect our tomorrow.
We can choose to neglect growth, learning, change, and improvement.
If we choose to invest our hearts and minds toward pondering evil we can miss our opportunity of participating in God's good.
If we can add a bit of God's good each day into our hearts and minds we can make a significant spiritual difference in the world. Test it. Do it for 30 days and see what happens. There is a spiritual battle at hand. The only battle that matters is right now. What will we choose? Let's choose to seek, trust, and do God's will.
The Spiritual Battle exists within us, within our choices.
Deuteronomy 30:15-18 NKJV
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess."
Do we choose to believe Moses?
If we choose to believe Moses then we accept this message as truth. Jesus does not discount this choice. Read John 15. We can choose to discount it or even avoid thinking about it. We can choose to seek scripture to invalidate it. If we choose to accept, believe, trust, rely, and have faith in it, then we will strive to do what it says. We can imperfectly grow into what is perfect little by little over time.
Romans 7:15-17
"For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me."
Paul is applying self analysis through introspection. Paul is evaluating his thinking. Why? Perhaps to understand why he continues to sin when he loves Jesus. This self-examination helps him to see inward influences upon his choices. The process involves asking deeper questions that have no easy quick answers.
Romans 16:19
"For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil."
We can grow wisdom in God's good through practicing it and reflecting upon all the spiritual things with the process.
For example:
If I know a good to do, but I do not do it, I can evaluate my reasoning as to why I don't. Too cold, hot, tired, not enough time or money, etc. What reasoning am I believing to stop me from doing good.
If I choose to do good, I can examine my inward feelings with it. Did I feel fear, worry, anxiety, or anger? Was I trusting God or rebelling? Was I even emotionally present? What did I think about the process?
I can observe how others responded. Were they pleased with the good I practiced? Did they smile or show appreciation? How did they respond the next time I saw them? Did it help the relationships?
There are always spiritual affects to our choices.
Colossians 1:10
"that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;"
We can grow in the knowledge of God, if we choose to seek it out. Each day we can set our minds, hearts, attitude, words, and actions to practice God's good.
Hebrews 5:13
"For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe."
We choose how much to train. Milk training can leave us "unskilled in the word of righteousness." We can raise the bar and go higher, if we choose to.
More verses: James 4:17, Titus 1:16, Psalm 38:20, Psalm 84:11, Psalm 125:4, Proverbs 14:22, Isaiah 5:20, Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:26 - 36, Galatians 6:10, 1 Peter 4:19
