Where Choices Lead: A Devotional

Devotionals
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#1

:heart: Where Choices Lead :heart:

The Lord watches over the way of the righteous.
- Psalm 1:6

Today’s Scripture & Insight:

Psalm 1
With no cell service and no trail map, we had just our memory of a fixed map at the trailhead to guide us. More than an hour later, we finally emerged from the woods into the parking lot. Having missed the turn-off that would have made for a half-mile hike, we took a much longer trek.

Life can be like that: we have to ask not simply if something is right or wrong, but where it will lead. Psalm 1 compares two ways of living—that of the righteous (those who love God) and that of the wicked (the enemies of those who love God). The righteous flourish like a tree, but the wicked blow away like chaff (vv. 3–4). This psalm reveals what flourishing really looks like. The person who lives it out is dependent on God for renewal and life.

So how do we become that kind of person? Among other things, Psalm 1 urges us to disengage from destructive relationships and unhealthy habits and to delight in God’s instruction (v. 2). Ultimately, the reason for our flourishing is God’s attentiveness to us: “The Lord watches over the way of the righteous” (v. 6).

Commit your way to God, let Him redirect you from old patterns that lead to nowhere, and allow the Scriptures to be the river that nourishes the root system of your heart.

By: Glenn Packiam from Our Daily Bread

#2

As I get older, I think about the decisions I make a lot. One choice I have made before that I 100% did not regret is building a strong relationship with the Lord. I was very sad and lonely before. One little problem, and then I cry and hurt myself. Until when I started to read God’s word and asked for forgiveness and strength. That decision I have had made a huge impact in my life. :yellow_heart: :yellow_heart:

#3

@kianna: I will start my comment with a quote whom I do not know who is the author haha! :joy: “Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make different choices.”

Our life is composed of the choices we make every single minute of our existence. From the moment we wake up, we have the choice if we will get up directly or still cuddle our pillows, get up and drink coffee or read our daily reflections and the like…whether we take responsibilities of our choices or not, these choices mold up our life.

Whatever choices we make, let’s ponder this on oir thoughts…Before every big decision, surrender to God and pursue holiness. Trust the Lord and his promises to make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5–6).

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#4

One of Jesus’ purpose in coming to this world was to die and “give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Once that was accomplished, He went back to the Father.

If you are going to follow Jesus you will experience times of doubt. It is important to know why we doubt. We doubt because it’s difficult to accept things we can’t understand.

The verse six of today’s Gospel reading as my devotion (John 16:5-11) says the disciples were filled with grief at the news of Jesus’ departure. This heavy talk gave the disciples a heavy heart.

Jesus saw their sorrow. Jesus loved them to the very end and identifies with what they’ll suffer (see John 16:2). He assured them He’ll be with them.

When the disciples first heard Jesus say, “It is to your advantage that I go away,” I’m sure their doubts got bigger.

It makes sense. The disciples couldn’t imagine anything better than having Christ physically with them. These men witnessed miracles, spent time with Jesus face-to-face, and were constantly under His teaching. How could the disciples make it without Jesus, let alone have it be an advantage to them for Him to leave?

How could Jesus leaving be good? We don’t understand ‘good’ because we constantly frame the concept of what is good from our own perspective.

What the disciples didn’t understand was that when God came as a human, He accepted human limitations. When Jesus became a man, He limited himself to being in one place at a time.

The Holy Spirit can be in all places at once. By sending God in Spirit, He would be with all believers simultaneously. His plan all along was not to be with them, but in them.

The disciples would watch Jesus preach, minister, and serve. But after Jesus was gone, they saw him (the Holy Spirit) moving through their hands, mouths, and lips as they trusted Him to work through them.

The Holy Spirit will be our Counselor, Advocate, Helper, Comforter, our Companion, and He’ll come alongside us to perform several unique ministries.

It took a heavenly perspective to realize that the short-term loss was nothing compared to the long-term advantage.

Similarly, we at various times may sense God doing things that are not in our plans. Maybe it violates our comfort, our happiness, or our 5-year-plan. In those times, we must ask God to reveal what He’s doing and see how it will be used for the better.

In this world we will have trouble and there will be lost—that’s a given. But remember: God turns short-term loss into long-term advantage. Jesus will always guide you to what is good!

Let Us Pray:
Father, I see afresh that the Holy Spirit leads my life just like Jesus led the apostles. I choose to listen to the words of Jesus through the voice of the Spirit – and obey them just as if Jesus were standing beside me today. By Your Holy Spirit, guide me so other people will know I belong to You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen!

#5

Such a wonderful devotion, it shows and displays God’s grace at full strength. There’s a lot of passages showing how powerful and mighty our God is. We can just look at how God demonstrated His powers against the Egyptians during Moses’ time, it clearly shows that God can do a lot of things to make us follow Him. But because He is so gracious, He gives us the free will to decide for ourselves. He lets us decide which road to take every time we are presented by different choices. My thoughts on this is that, we have a powerful, mighty, strict, but on the other hand a gracious, loving, and merciful Father in heaven. Two very conflicting attitude rolled into one just to protect and please His own people.

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#6

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot of things especially at night when I couldn’t sleep.

Everyday we make choices which will become result of our decisions. But in the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take. Maybe we think it’s for the better until it is lost. But by any means, the important is we choose to do what is right, even though sometimes we regret our choices and decisions. Right is still right even though few are doing it. And wrong will still be wrong even if everybody is doing it. Sometimes we take risks, sometimes we play it safe. Our choices matters most. What will you choose? Love over friendship? Life over death? Truth or lies? Jesus over Satan? We had a million options. We had our personal reasons and sometimes we just need to trust God and hope that whatever we are doing, in the end, either we win, it makes us stronger or we learn our lessons.

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#7

I love this!! :blush: :yellow_heart: I super agree! Everything that has been happening in our life, we made that happen.

oooh guilty lol the past few days I have been cuddling more with my pillows rather than getting up directly and work.

Thank you so much for the motivating words, @MakkaPakka! God bless you! This will definitely be something I will reflect on for tonight.

#8

Yep, true. It will be hard the first time, but worth it! :blush: :yellow_heart:

I agree. Sometimes we get mad why things do not go our way, but we have to know that certain things happen for a reason. God knows what’s best for us. He knows us better than ourselves. He knows what will happen before we do.

Thank you so much for that wonderful piece, @Bhert! God bless you and always keep safe!

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#9

The Lord God is all-powerful and mighty but He never forced us to do things. He never forced us to follow Him, follow His ways. He gave us free will to either do it or not, to follow Him or not. He let us decide on that. Words are not enough to express how amazing our God is! :blush: :yellow_heart:

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#10

You’re right we have to know that certain things happen for a reason like what happen to me, I was chosen ‘Temporarily No Work’ by the management of the company since they concern and consider the problem in transportation from Home to Work. With this idea, it isn’t easy for me however I am thinking the other side which I think it was my benefit to be safe. God really knows what’s best for us. My warm welcome is with you @kianna.

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#11

This hit differently. Sometimes, people forget what’s right and wrong because they depend or look at what people are doing or normalizing. Things are getting more complicated now because of a lot of opinions on people being posted on social media, and honestly sometimes things get complicated because of that. They forget what they are doing is wrong, I do not even know why. It’s frustrating sometimes.

#12

Yes and that is what people fail to see, sometimes. :frowning: They overthink on one point of the situation disregarding those other points that make the whole thing reasonable.

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#13

Indeed, we have to be thankful for unexpected things happen whether it might give us a challenge yet a very beneficial challenge for us. Thinking that Covid-19 stressing the whole countries, what about thinking also God indulging us to pursue Him and what’s good to us. I stopped drowning myself into a miserable emotions because I was at that point in time that I can’t handle well myself-like I was acting in a Bipolar-behaviour which I am undetermined and over-thinking. But this time, with that experiences now I changed and God gave me that lesson. This is the way that God thinking what is good for us @kianna .

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#14

That is good to know, @Bhert! Mental healing is such a great blessing and miracle from the Lord! God has plans for all of us! Let us ask strength and guidance as we go through life! He knows we can handle the problems we meet because He is always there for us, that is why we have to fully accept Him and pay attention to Him! :blush:

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#15

I love trekking. I used to trek with my friends before. It was such a challenging experience, there were times that I need to stop to catch my breath and moments wherein I ask, “Are we there yet?”. I also have ‘what ifs’ while walking like "what if I faint or what if I hit my head somewhere and die?’ But when we reached our destination, the view changed everything. I learned to appreciate the struggles we’ve encountered in order to see that breathtaking view. Life is like that journey. God is our destination. The pain and difficulties are temporary. It will all be worth it in the end.

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#16

Lol 101% relate!! Sometimes the path is just scary sometimes that I think wow what if I die and they won’t be able to find my body whenever I fall somewhere? :joy: But yes, so true! The journey may frighten us, we may have our doubts and struggles but as we move on with it and live with it, the closer we are to our destination! :blush: There are times our faith gets challenged or questioned but if we just trust the Lord and go through with it and never quit, we’ll get to our destination and all will be worth it! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

#17

@kianna: Hi dear…high five! Me too…instead of getting up early to do my chores, I stick to my bed and check emails, and my social media…These are the two things that makes me lazy every morning haha! But I will make it habit to open Faith Pixel first when I wake up so that I can do reflections to some poses here and as well as my daily devotions. God bless!

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#18

@kbadum: I salute people who loves trekking because I tried it once and never do it again haha! My first adventure was going on a bat cave, and then climbing up and down just to reach the waterfalls and going down again to a sink hole cave. At first, I am excited and determined, but in the long run my fears were triggered…“what if along the trek there is a snake and bite me? will I reach it to emergency hospital or I’ll be dead without my parents knowing where I am”…but still I pursue it haha…So when we entered the first cave I was a bit anxious for I am afraid of “what if there is an earthquake and then we will be trap inside, or what if here comes landslide?”…To cut the story short, I survived and it was very fun most especially in the part where you will really encounter snakes and other wildlife animals…

Lesson learned? Just like every life, it is filled with ups and downs. Times that are easy and times that are so very hard. Moments wherein strength abounds and when weakness surrounds. But despite the rise and fall, our God is constant and he perfectly lead us to great destinations in life.

#19

Hello, dear @kianna
I really like this part:

If we think about it in a significant way, in our lives we don’t really have a guide to follow to get to each next step, we are blindly walking by it, the only help we can have (or a memory of a fixed map) to guide us is the teachings of God, it’s the only thing we can have to guide us and get to the happiness and meaning we are looking for. Then we can go by each choice without having so many doubts, being sure that God will lead us to the one is good for us.
Kind regards, Luis Guerrero

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#20

I mostly check on here in the evening lol it is very quiet here at night so I can easily reflect on the posts hehe I have been waking up early that’s why I feel like I have more time to cuddle