Making Tough Choices

Many of us don't find work to be fun. We go but it is a fight. 'Do what you love.' may not always be an option for us but we make a choice because we have weighed our options and work allows us certain benefits. It is great if we love what we do but even if that is true we likely have aspects of work that are not our favorite but they are necessary. We do what we need to do because we are adults and it is part of being a mature responsible person.

Purpose or pleasure. Which will it be? Sometimes you can't have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes you and I must just make a choice and live with that choice. It we choose in anger, exhaustion, self-justification or exasperation we may live to regret what we did because in those states we are seeking relief and are often not building on a future happiness.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." - John 3:16-17 ESV

"But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors." - Isaiah 53:10-12 NASB

God has made some tough choices because of love. We can also. Love is pleasurable but it has stages that we must tough out because we care about the end result. God gave us free will and He has had some hard days because of that choice. His hardest day was the cross but God 'was pleased' to crush His Son so that we could be reconciled. That boggles the mind.

Don't quit.

Don't throw up your hands and self medicate.

Don't choose pleasure over purpose. Let's have pleasure in our purpose because our purpose aligns with God's purpose. If we value investment and redemption all the sweat and tears will contribute to a great increase.

"Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, 'Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.' But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." - Hebrews 10:35-39 ESV

Yes and Amen.

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The Treacherous Path

"Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard." - Proverbs 13:15 KJV

This is so true.

All the modern translations of this verse seem to take away what this verse says in the Hebrew. In the Hebrew it says that the path of the transgressor is washed out like a strong river washing out a road during a storm making it 'hard' or treacherous to pass.

Passion that runs outside it's channel ruins the path.

Good understanding opens the path of favor.

"Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will." - 2 Timothy 2:21-26 ESV

Yes. Here we are back at this passage.

Wisdom does not quench our passion. Discouragement can do that. Shame can direct our passions in unhealthy ways but knowledge of the truth harnesses passion so that it is useful. Grace tames the savage beast by restoring the equipment that was lost at the fall. Adam died spiritually but Jesus is the second Adam.

"Thus it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being'; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven." - 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 ESV

Our spirit is quickened by God's Spirit and made alive in a new economy of Grace.

As P Schaller said this weekend in Baltimore. This new man has 'likability' and favor with God. His path is a grace path.

Is your path hard because your passions are not under control. You are not alone and it doesn't have to be that way. Damming up the river doesn't have to be the answer. It also doesn't have to ruin your life in cycles. God has a way for your river to flow that won't make your way treacherous.

It is called grace and it can only be found in Jesus Christ.

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