Let Is A Choice

Let Is A Choice

Scripture: Romans 12:2; John 14:1; Matthew 5:16

Good morning Strangers Rest. The title of my message this morning is “Let is a Choice.” In this message we will be examining some Scriptures that tell us to “let” something be or “let” something happen. What you are going to hear this morning is that we have a choice – we can choose to let something be or happen or we can choose not to let something be or happen. Sis. Long emailed Sis. Jami and me last week to tell us that she wanted the choir to sing “God Is” today. I emailed her back and told her that I loved the song, and it would go well with this message. For those of you who might not be familiar with this song even after hearing it this morning, I want to share a few of the lyrics with you.

The song says, “God is my protection, God is my all and all. God is my light in darkness, God is my joy in the time of sorrow. God is my today and my tomorrow. God is the joy and the strength of my life. He removes all pain, misery, and strife. He promised to keep me, never to leave me, He’ll never ever come short of His word. God is my all and all.” Now here is what I want you to remember as I go into this message this morning: everything that this song says that God is to every one of us is absolutely true. Although God’s word tells us what He desires to be in our life, and this is important, God can only be all those things in our lives if we let Him! If we allow Him to be! He will not force us to let Him do anything for us – the choice is ours!

Last week I spoke to you about how we should respond to unexpected events in life. Our response to the unexpected is a choice. Two weeks ago, I told you about Pharaoh “choosing” to have one more night with frogs that was plaguing Egypt. He chose to have one more night with those frogs versus having God eradicate them immediately. In that message I also mentioned Lot and how, even though his spirit was vexed with the sin around him, he chose to remain in Sodom and Gomorrah and lost most of what he owned when he first arrived there. In every situation a choice was made. This morning, I am going to show you in the word of God some choices that the Bible says we should be making.

Several years ago, I read an article in a magazine about a man named George Dawson. You may have heard about him. In 1996 he enrolled in a class to learn how to read and write. At the time of his enrollment, he was 98 years old. Four years later, in 2000, he published the story of his life. He was the grandson of slaves, born in a log cabin, labored at menial jobs and endured racism throughout his life. What is profound about his story was the philosophy that his father had instilled within him. His father believed and taught him that no matter what, life is so good. Please understand what I am telling you. His father did not deny the circumstances in which he lived. Instead, he chose to live above those circumstances and believe that his life was so good regardless of the messes he had to deal with daily. This is what he imparted into his son. A choice to believe that his life was good! He died in 2001 at the age of 103 believing that life was so good! His life was not so good because of the things he dealt with, but because of his choice to believe that his life was good! Now imagine for a moment what our lives would be like if we woke up every morning believing that life was so good regardless of what we faced each day. You get fired from a job – yet life is so good. Someone refuses to talk to you – yet life is so good. Children giving you the blues – yet life is so good. Parents doing the same – yet life is so good. My point is this, making the choice to believe that life is so good takes the same amount of mental energy as it does to choose to believe that life is not so good! I told you before that Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Each of us has made choices about our lives. We have chosen what we wish to believe about what we can or cannot do. We believe that our time has passed for some things as we are just too old while we also believe that we are still able to do other things. We believe that there are some things that we just cannot do because of where we are in life while other things we can do because we see ourselves as still being capable. The choice that we make confirms what we already believe – that we can or cannot do something. How many of us at the age of ninety-eight would go back to school to get a GED? Many would say it was not worth it – we are just too old to put forth that effort. But what if you believed that it was worth it? What if you believed that you could do it? I want to say this and then I will move on – our abilities to do something often do not start with our being able to do it. It starts with a choice to do it. Once the choice is made, the ability can come through training! This is why Paul says in Romans 12:2, I will be reading from the Amplified Bible, “And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].”