It’s Your Life – It’s Your Choice

This Sunday morning we are going to re-examine the relationship between choice and change. Choosing to change is the most efficient key to fulfilling your destiny. 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 (how you think about your circumstances and what’s happening to you).

Happiness is a choice. When you get up in the morning you can choose to be happy and enjoy the day, or you can choose to be miserable and go around angry and frustrated. It’s up to you. If you allow circumstances dictate your happiness, then you will always miss out on God’s abundant life. Have you noticed? Life is flying by! The Bible says we are like a mist – here for a moment and then gone! So don’t waste another moment of your precious time being angry, unhappy or worried.

The psalmist said, “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Notice, he didn’t say, “Because the Lord has created this day, He has made me happy.” He said, “I will rejoice and be glad in it.” The psalmist had decided to be happy! Also, he had chosen (willed) to be happy in this day. He didn’t say, “Tomorrow, or next week, when I don’t have any problems, I’m going to rejoice and be glad.” No, he said, “This is the day.” He knew that God wanted him to be happy in this day, so he chose to think differently.

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. Think “happy” and you will be happy! And when ever 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 determines how you feel and react. How you perceive things to be will impact on your attitudes and responses. 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 can choose to follow and obey the unchangeable mighty God (who Himself chose to love you first), or you can choose your own selfish way. It’s your life - it’s your choice!

In Deuteronomy 30:19 God challenges us all by saying, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Your choices won’t only affect you, they will effect future generations. And choosing “life” for yourself does not mean choosing curses for your family. Choosing to leave your wife or husband may appear to be life to you, but it’s a curse to your children.

Don’t take for granted what God has already given you. Have a grateful attitude. See the best in every person and in every situation and learn to be happy right where you are. Here’s the key: Bloom where you’re planted. You may not be where you want to be in life right now. You may not have the perfect marriage. You may not have the perfect job. Life may not have turned out exactly the way you’ve hoped. But you must make a quality decision; you must choose to make the most of every situation.

Your wilful 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 course in life that will help you fulfil your destiny. And the first step is to choose change! Human nature is bent on finding comfort in what’s familiar and predictable. The carnal man loves to be in control in an environment of familiarity, and he want’s to keep control at any cost. However, the spirit man loves change and is always in the process of change, this is his intrinsic nature (his true self). 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are constantly being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

The Greek word for transform literally means “to be changed into another form.” It’s where we get the English word “metamorphous.” Your spirit man is being constantly changed into the form and likeness of Jesus. But this change is in ever-increasing measure! Wow! If you seriously want to fulfil your God given destiny and reach your promised land, you must choose change. Change needs to be as natural to your physical man as it is to your spiritual man. It’s your life - it’s your choice!

In Deuteronomy 1:6-8 Moses turns to the children of Israel and reviews a specific period, saying, “The Lord our God said to us at Horeb (Sinai), ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighbouring peoples, in the mountains, in the western foothills, and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore He would give to your fathers – to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and to their descendants after them’."

Now the journey from Sinai required only 11 days, yet 38 years had passed before the Israelites were ready to enter the Promised Land. Many of you may have lost your way in life. But even more have stayed long enough on this mountain. You may be in fear of the future, or just stubborn and pigheaded, or you may be living in a comfort zone that’s filled with familiarity and convention. Whatever, God is saying to you today, “Brake away and advance toward your destiny.”

As you choose change God will draw alongside you and steer your life in a miraculous way. But remember, you cannot transform your actions until you have first transformed your mind. So choose the right thoughts! Until your thought life has changed, leaving this mountain is pointless. You just end up on the same old mountain! With the same old issues! However, when you consciously choose change and start thinking excellent thoughts, you will be propelled toward your destiny. It’s time to seriously think about what you are thinking about! Stop letting those negative thoughts run riot in your mind. Hold them captive and make them obedient to Christ. God has given you the power to do this. Yes, you can choose to cast down those thoughts and dismiss them from your mind.

If you are going to leave this mountain today you must first change how you’re thinking. Your life will always follow after your thoughts. Almost like a magnet, we draw in what we constantly think about. If you are always thinking positive, happy, joyful thoughts, you’re going to be a positive, happy, joyful person. And this will invite positive, happy and joyful situations into your life.

Your mind is like the transmission of a car. You have a forward gear, and you have a reverse gear. And only you can choose which way to go. Note it does not take any more effort to go forward than it does to go backward. It’s all in the decision making process. Similarly, you determine, by your own choices, which way your life is going to go. So decide which way you want your life to go and your thoughts will come in line with it. And keep reminding yourself – if you transform your mind, God will transform your life. He created you with greatness in mind. Therefore, your mind should be filled with greatness! It’s your life – It’s your choice.

Chris Demetriou, 01/07/2007