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God
gave freedom to use our own heads to decide what to do. Consider Adam, for
example. God put him in the Garden of Eden and told him to name the
animals (Gen. 2:19-20). Did Adam get all flustered and say, "But
Lord, I want to make sure I name them exactly what You think they should
be named"? No, God gave Adam freedom to choose the names that
pleased Adam, and it was fine with God.
Another
example from Genesis 2 was Adam's choice of food. God had said that Adam
could eat from any tree he wanted, except for one. That gave Adam great
freedom--even though later he and Eve overextended their freedom and
disobeyed God. And therein lies the key. Our God-given freedom extends to
those decisions that God's commands and principles have not addressed.
For
example, a fish in the ocean is free to swim anywhere it wants to flap
its fins. But if it chose to flip up onto land, the decision would be
fatal. As human beings, we have freedom to choose among good options that
conform to God's standards and His ideas of wisdom. Once we "jump
out" of God's standards, however, we make a major mistake.
If
we are extremely uneasy about a decision, we should take time to evaluate
why we feel that way. In some cases, such lack of peace may indicate that
our choice is "not from faith" and is a sinful violation of our
conscience (Rom. 14:23). Or a lack of peace may indicate that we have not
expressed our trust in God to meet our needs (Phil. 4:6-7).
We
should remember that although God can use our feelings to direct us, what
we "feel" may be a result of our emotional makeup rather than a
message from God's Spirit. And watch out for the paralysis of analysis, a
decision-crippling disease affecting those who procrastinate or who
continually fear that some bit of information is yet to be found that
will help them know what God wants them to do.
It's
important that we see our freedom of choice in the context of all that
God has offered to help us know what He wants us to do. He hasn't left us
out in the middle of a wilderness without a compass. He offers help to
all who will acknowledge Him as Lord. He has given us reliable guidance
in His Word. He has given us rational thinking power to evaluate our
options. We have information in the form of advice from people we can
trust. And He gives us freedom to choose when the decision lacks any
clear admonition or prohibition from Him.
We
will make mistakes! But we need to remember that we are to use those
mistakes as opportunities to learn and be grateful that we serve a God of
second, third, fourth,.. chances - a God that loves us and that forgives
us. We are blessed beyond our ability to comprehend by a God that was
willing to let His Son die so that we might be saved. How awesome is
that? So, when we make mistakes we shouldn't bury ourselves in
self-condemnation after all, God doesn't condemn us - He forgives us!
Every
day of self-absorbed self-condemnation is a day spent robbing ourselves
of the joy of a grateful heart. Every hour of beating ourselves up is an
hour spent robbing others of the good that God wants to do for them
through us. Instead, spend every day living in the freedom of
forgiveness because each of those days is a day of praising God.
Every hour lived in gratitude for forgiveness is an hour spent loving
others on God's behalf.
God
loves us. He wants us to live for Him. If we desire to honor God, we can
be sure that He will not leave us in the dark when we want to know what
He wants us to do. Even if we have been foolish or disobedient in the
past, we can know and do what God wants us to do--today and tomorrow.
Praise
God that we live in a country where we can enjoy the freedom that God
gives to his people - land of the free - America! God Bless America!
Curtis
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