Choose Life

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach . . . No, the Word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. --

Not too difficult--not far away. It must be in our mouth and heart, be part of us, not something outside of us. Our own thinking processes.

See, I set before you this day life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. --

Life and prosperity, or death and destruction. White and black, there are no grays here. Be drawn to God and His ways, the ways He made this world to operate, to work. Commands, decrees and laws explain how we can cooperate with the way the world works, and get the benefits.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

Or rebel against God's "natural order" to be enticed away, and it will result in destruction, problems, troubles, death.

This day I call forth Heaven and Earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.

Heaven and Earth were made to order to be the best environments for us to exist in, with everything we need to all be healthy and prosperous; if only we will listen and take to heart what God is teaching us in His written Word.

Now choose life, so that you and your children may live, and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

It is our choice, each one of us. If we would seek to know who God really is, and honestly want to follow Him, then we will fall in love with Him and want to do what pleases Him. And as our Father, what pleases Him is for us to do well. What father doesn't want his children to do well in life, to succeed in their endeavors and to get along well together? So He has laid out for us in His written Word all the rules, regulations and stipulations we need to adhere to in order to cooperate with the ways this world was made to run and work. God is life, He is where all life and Truth originates. To align our thoughts with His gives us access to the root and nourishment that sustains life. 

There is no life in any other. Anything else we prioritize before God and His ways only draws us away from life into a slow or sudden death. Even what we would consider to be "good" can blind us to what is really "best" for us. We really need to be careful to make sure we have a right understanding of all that God tells us; then we will be able to participate in the "best" that God has planned all along for us to have.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!