Rhapsody of Realities is no ordinary book, it is a life guide designed to enhance your spiritual growth and development by bringing you a fresh perspective from God’s Word every day.
Today’s Rhapsody is about choice, “He gave you the power to choose the life of blessings because that’s His desire for you, to live in blessings evermore. In life, there’ll be circumstances or even people that’ll try to frustrate your aspirations for a happy and joyful life. Nevertheless, everything still boils down to your choice. Choose to live your life in the light of His truth and make up your mind that your joy and fulfillment in life would be independent of circumstances. Choose to take pleasure in every day and enjoy the moments of your life.” Pastor Chris Oyakhilome elaborated as he explained the scripture of Romans 14:17.
“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost”.
This passage tackles the debate of how Christians with different convictions about various questionable matters should treat each other in the church. Strong-faith Christians who feel free to eat and drink what was formerly forbidden under the law of Moses should not flaunt their freedoms in front of weaker-faith Christians who are not convinced it is right to participate in those things. Neither group should judge the other. Those strong in their faith should rather not lead those weaker in faith to violate their conscience, as that is a sin.
The Foundation of Choice
God desires for us to be in a loving, personal, conversational relationship with him. He loves us. He created us to love us (Ephesians 1:4). He doesn’t control us, and we certainly don’t control him. He longs for us to be friends and fellow workers with him (John 15:13-15; 1 Corinthians 3:9). A Christian’s relationship with God is grounded in love, and, in love, we develop our personal, conversational relationship where God can and does speak to us anytime he wants. With the foundation of a loving, personal relationship, God can tell us specifically what to do (Acts 9:10-16), or give us a choice, and whatever we choose will be his will for us.
When it comes to God’s will in decisions, some people expect God to speak clearly every time a choice arises. They believe God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are much better than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). They believe Jesus’s followers know his voice, listen to it, and then follow (John 10:1-5). They expect to hear every time. Others believe that God doesn’t normally speak specifically about things and almost always leaves us to our own choices within his general and moral will as given in the Bible. He created us with good brains and he transforms our thinking so that our choices will be wise (Romans 12:2). We are to meditate on God’s Word (Psalm 1), store it in our memories (Psalm 119:11), pray for wisdom and understanding (Proverbs 2; James 1:5), and then make good decisions.
According to Pastor Chris, God gave us the power to choose the life of blessings because that’s His desire for us, to live in blessings evermore. “Life to the full, divine health, supernatural insight and great amplitude of mind, prosperity and wealth, a life of glory and ever-increasing joy; these and more are your divine provisions in Christ. But you must make the choice to apprehend and appropriate these realities in your personal life. Choose to walk in God’s Word and glorify God in your life today.”
As a Christian, we must do the work to cultivate our relationship with God. We must study his Word to know his ways and his moral will. We must be willing to do whatever he tells us to do through his Word or the Holy Spirit. We should always ask him if he has anything he wants to tell us about our decisions. We should ask with the right motives. Often God will then say, “It’s your choice,” or we will simply know the decision is ours to make. Then, we should confidently choose.
You can read previous articles on Daily Devotionals in the times of quarantine or visit www.pastorchrisliveusa.org