Text: Hebrews 11
Key verse: “He preferred to suffer with God\’s people rather than to enjoy sin for a little while.” verse 25
Life offers man choices daily. From birth to death, every choice comes with several other alternatives, and your good sense of judgment on how to deploy your resources is your greatest asset.
Beginning from the garden of Eden, God gave man the privilege to make choices. His graciousness also made him share the consequence of a wrong choice. In the last book of the bible, Jesus for the last time sounds the alarm which simply put says: l will come soon to reward everyone according to the choices you made.
Listen!” says Jesus. “I am coming soon! I will bring my rewards with me, to give to each one according to what he has done. Revelations 22: 12
What determines the choices you make? Pleasure, purpose, or pressure? You don’t have to say a word to reveal the choice you make, even your silence is a choice.
Choices are so powerful, they have consequences here and now and in eternity. Our daily choices do not only affect the way our lives turn out but have the potential to influence the lives of our unborn children and the generations after them.
God gave us a revelation of the broad classification of choices there are to choose from.
“I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God’s blessing and God’s curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life.” Deuteronomy 30:19
When you begin to see every choice in terms of life or death, you will exercise more discretion. Secondly, if you understand the power of the blessing, then you will seek outcomes that will position you well for God’s blessings and not curses.
Moses had a tough choice to make, we are not told if he consulted anyone, but we know from hindsight that the struggle was between the momentary pleasures he would enjoy in Egypt and the life of difficulty, pain, and hardship that being an Israelite at that time portrayed. No doubt as a young man pressure must have come from friends and his peers. He had lived all his life in affluence and did not know what the other life would look like for him, but the resolved to step out in faith.
There are broken hearts and broken people all over the place because people are living simply in pursuit of pleasure. Even Christians whom you expect should know better are simply driven by \”what pleases me” and “what l want”. Sin will always offer pleasure for a season but soon after stings with death.
Our key verse in the Good news translation reads: and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the short-lived pleasure of sin.
Whether it is the pleasure of secret revenge or the excitement of an immoral sexual relationship, it never lasts forever, one day it comes with a harvest of shame, pain, and death you never imagined.
The suffering of identifying with God’s people will only bring inconvenience to the body for a while but the outcome offers rewards in this life and the life to come.
Don’t regret the choices to made to choose life for yourself and your family, don’t regret your decision to live a life of purity when everyone was comfortably taking short cuts to the top by trading their bodies.
God is faithful, he rewards according to the life we have lived in secret, and in public, he rewards according to the timing of heaven’s agenda.
Moses suffered a while, but accomplished a feat no man imagined possible in his day, bringing millions of people out of slavery from the hands of a world power only using spiritual warfare. He fulfilled purpose!
“But after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who calls you to share his eternal glory in union with Christ, will himself perfect you and give you firmness, strength, and a sure foundation” 1 Peter 5:10
The suffering we face as Christians is just for a little while, but the glory we will have, because of our union with Christ is eternal, here and in eternity.
Moses our worthy ambassador chose in faith, he didn’t have any physical proof to rely on, but he trusted God and took the plunge.
It’s your turn today, no grey areas. It’s either black or white, life or death, blessings or curses. Make your choice!
Blessings,
Roses & Thorns