The Choice Is Yours

In Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Yet I don’t believe our creation in the image of God has anything to do with our physical features. Instead, God’s image means we have the power of choice.

The Lord didn’t create us to be like robots or like puppets on a string. We’re not designed to worship or draw near to Him because He pulls some kind of cosmic string that makes us do so. It’s a matter of choice.

The freedom to choose is a precious gift. Throughout our life, God sets choices before us. Although He gladly reveals His will, we have the power to make our own decisions.

Not a Forced Love Affair

This means that if we love God, worship Him, praise Him, seek Him, and take time to be in His presence, it’s because we’ve chosen to—not because there’s some kind of mystical, unseen hand that has forced our compliance.

After all, no one wants a forced love affair.

Because God created you with the ability to seek Him, you can have as close of a relationship with Him as you would like. Every day, you can experience as much of His presence as you want.

So ask yourself today, how intimate of a relationship with God would you like to have? The choice is yours. You can experience as much or as little of God as you choose.

Do you want to just know about the Lord? Are you content to just be His casual acquaintance? Or are you intent on drawing near to Him, discovering a place of true friendship and intimacy?

The Investment of Time

Your Heavenly Father longs for an intimate relationship with you. But intimate relationships take time. You can’t possibly have an intimate relationship with someone you only see or talk to once a year, once a month, or even once a week. Relationships develop as a result of deliberately choosing to spend time together.

Every day, you face a choice about your relationship with your Heavenly Father. What kind of a relationship do you want with Him? Do you hunger for ever-deepening intimacy with Him?

Today, I pray you will make a commitment to spend daily time with the Lord. Time in His Word…time in prayer…time in worship…time alone with Him. He will nourish you on “daily bread” as you bask in His presence.

Friend, I believe you are at a crossroads. God is setting before you a life of incredible blessing and abundance. But the choice is yours.

“I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity…that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it…So choose life…by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” – DEUTERONOMY 30:15-20

…

Excerpt taken from CROSSROADS: Better Choices for a Better Life by David Cerullo