The undeniable Laws of Life

The Law of Choice

In Deuteronomy 30:19 the Lord declares, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”

It’s your life - it’s your choice! You are always free to choose. Not even God Almighty forces you to think, feel or behave the way you do. Rather, you choose your emotions and your behaviour by the way you choose to think about the world around you [and about what’s happening to you]. Your thoughts are primary creative forces in your life. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.”

You can create your entire world by the way you think. All the situations in your life have only the meaning you give them by the way you think about them. And when you change your thinking, you change your life, sometimes in seconds! The choice is yours. You can continue doing or thinking the way you’ve always done, or you can make a quality decision and choose change.

It is not what happens to you but how you think about what happens to you that will determine how you feel and react. It is not the world outside you that dictates your circumstances or conditions. It is the world inside you that creates the conditions of your life. And the world inside you is driven by your freedom of choice - your free will! You choose to follow and obey the unchangeable God!

You choices determine everything you are and everything you become. The good news is that you can learn to make the right choices. You can be taught how to set a direction or course in life that will help you fulfil your destiny.

The word of God [the Bible] is your manual for successful Christian living. It has all the instructions you will ever need. But your way of explaining things to yourself is under your control. Therefore, if you choose to see things a certain way [even with knowledge of God’s word], you will see only what you want to see. This is why it is important that you are in submission to someone who has your interests at heart. A person who can give you wise counsel.

Proverbs 20:5 says, “Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” You need someone with Godly wisdom and understanding to draw out of you the best direction and give you the best advice. Proverbs 18:4 states, “The words of a wise man are like deep waters, and the fountain of Godly wisdom is like a gushing stream [fresh, pure and life-giving].”

A good counsellor can help you interpret your experiences in such a way that you feel happy and optimistic rather than angry and frustrated. However, you will is always involved. You can decide for yourself whether to react in such a way that your responses are constructive and effective. Or you can decide to react negatively, resulting in your responses being non constructive and ineffective. You’re always free to choose.

Your thoughts and feelings are continually changing. They are quickly affected by the events around you. For example, when you receive a piece of good news, you attitude immediately brightens and you feel more positive toward everyone and everything. If, on the other hand, you unexpectedly receive some bad news, you can immediately become upset, angry, or frustrated - even if the news is inaccurate or untrue.

It’s the way you interpret the event to yourself that determines how you react. This is why you ought to see your circumstances through God’s eyes only.

You cannot be moved by circumstances - only by God’s infallible word. This is where faith comes in. You must choose to life by faith. God is not going to force you to do it! Deciding to live by faith is making the right choice. But it also helps you enjoy life to the full. Habakkuk 2:4 declares, “The just shall live by faith,” However, “shall live” means to flourish, to enjoy life, or to live in happiness. Therefore, when you choose to live by faith your life is flooded with enjoyment. Quite simply, you are happy because you chose faith.

You must decide exactly what you want and then make the right choices to turn it into reality. In your life, you have had experiences where you have been unsure of what to do or in what direction to go. You have likely gone back and forth and felt more and more uncomfortable and distracted. Then you finally resolve your dilemma by making a clear decision, you choose one way or another. In looking back, you probably find that that decision or choice was the turning point for you in that situation, or perhaps even in your life. Everything else flowed from that decision or choice.

The ability to make the right choices is one of the most important skills you can learn. And developing the habit of decisiveness can be a critical factor that enables you to take command of a situation and steer you toward victory.

People who know how to make the right choices always act boldly. And when they do God comes to their aid. God told Joshua to, “Be strong and very courageous …that you may prosper wherever you go” [Joshua 1:7]. Joshua had to choose to be strong and courageous, it didn’t come naturally. Otherwise God would not have repeated Himself!
Choosing to obey the unchangeable God is choosing to obey His undeniable laws. The rewards are immeasurable! When you choose to obey God you will make yourself prosperous in everything you do. It’s your life - it’s your choice!

Chris Demetriou, 05/03/2006