A Million Little Choices

Recently the book of Romans has been popping up a lot in my life.  I have learned when that happens, I need to pay attention – usually God is trying to tell me something.  I am also more diligent about paying attention since I have learned sometimes He has to prompt me many times before I catch on!  The particular verse I keep seeing is Romans 12:2:  “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Sometimes it takes a while for God to reveal what He is getting at, but this time, He left nothing to doubt.   He was teaching me a lesson in obedience.

Sometimes, submission and obedience are the greatest tests of our faith.

Obedience is a choice and so is sin.  Are there outside things that influence our choices?  Of course!  But ultimately, our choices are ours alone.  To choose obedience is to choose submission to God – something for which He blesses us.  On the mountain, as Abraham is spared at the last minute from killing his son, Isaac, God tells him, “I will surely bless you . . . and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:17-18) Sometimes, submission and obedience are the greatest tests of our faith.  We might be asked to do something, like Abraham sacrificing Isaac, that goes against all of our will and every desire of our heart.  The key word here is “asked”.  God could force us to do His will.  He doesn’t.  We always get to choose.  Obedience shows our faith, love, and complete trust in Him.  But choosing to sin?  That is the ultimate act of rebellion.  It is us telling God we value our own will so much more than His.  It is telling Him we love ourselves more than Him.  We trust ourselves more than Him.  And our faith is ultimately in us alone – not Him.  All sin – no matter how small – is an act of rebelling against God.

There are two types of sin:  commission and omission. 

It is hard sometimes.  We have this sin nature that we inherited because of the Fall.  We inherited some of the prideful rebellion Satan had as he turned against God and was cast out of heaven.  We want what we want.  There are two types of sin:  commission and omission.  The commission sins are the obvious ones.  That is where we choose to do something we should not do.  We tell the lie.  We spread the gossip.  We watch the program we shouldn’t or use God’s name in vain.  There are any number of sins of commission, all the way up to murder.  We know it when we do it.  Hopefully we feel it when we do it, too, and it convicts us to repent and ask God’s forgiveness.  Often, these are sins others witness us doing, so they aren’t all that easy to pass off and ignore.  They are outward signs of the broken and fallen human heart. 

We sin by commission a lot, but we sin by omission even more. 

Sins of omission are a different story.  They are the things we should have done, but didn’t.  Commission is when we don’t say “no”.  Omission is when we don’t say “yes”.  Too often, these sins – the ones where God is prompting you to do something and you refuse to – are invisible.  No one sees when you don’t do something.  But the God who sees everything, knows.  And so do you.  Unfortunately, these are also the sins that it is easy for us to just brush off and justify away.  Did you get prompted to pray for someone, but just got too busy?  God understands when life gets stressful like that, right?  I do this all the time.  I think, “I should read the Bible this morning,” but I check my phone, see an email, and get sucked into the online world.  The Bible goes untouched, but surely it’s okay because I will make up for it by reading twice as much tomorrow.  We sin by commission a lot, but we sin by omission even more.  We let the world become our choice, instead of what God is prompting.

God communicated that a recent incident in my life was a test of my obedience.

This point was what God was teaching me about, unexpectedly and powerfully, in a class I was attending recently.  The teacher was talking about a person who was prompted to go forward to the altar at the end of church and had no idea why.  Going forward to the altar is really a stretch for a lot of people.  I know it can fill my mind with all sorts of scenarios about what others are thinking.  Do they think I’m not saved?  Do they think something terrible is going on in my life?  It can be hard.  So she hesitated, but finally went up anyhow.  When she got there and the pastor asked how he could help her, she said she didn’t know.  The pastor told her it could have been God testing her obedience.  When I heard the teacher say that, I had one of those God moments.  I felt God communicating to my spirit in a strong way that a recent episode in my life was also a test of my obedience.  It was the incident I wrote about a few weeks ago with what I called the “Cat Chow Challenge” where I was asked to tell a clerk God loved her.  It took so much prompting, conviction, and even a clear sign from God to get me to say those words.  But I did it and, in light of what God communicated to me as this teacher spoke, I am so glad now.  If I had walked away, it would have been a sin of open rebellion against God – a sin of omission.  No one would have known, except me and God.  And that would have been enough to convict me of my sin for a long time to come.  That’s what happens when we choose to walk away from God, even in the little things.

God tests our obedience to teach us how to submit to Him.

I do believe God tests our obedience.  He does it not because He has no idea how we will respond – He knows everything.  I think He does it to teach us how to submit to Him.  It grows our faith and trust.  And our faith is what He counts as righteousness, just like He did with Abraham in Genesis 15:6.  Our faith is what will see us through the next time things get really difficult in our lives.  The more we learn to obey and submit, the more we will weather the storms of life. 

What we choose in the small moments sets us up for what we will choose in the bigger moments.

That brings me back to Romans.  When we choose to commit a sin or omit something God wants us to do, we are being conformed to the world.  We are choosing what is easy for us, not what is God’s plan.  It would have been easy to walk away from the clerk.  I sure wanted to.  I was so afraid of what others would think.  I was having my choice made by the world.  I was conforming to it.  But thankfully, in the end I reluctantly obeyed.  I set my ego and fear aside and just did it.  I look back now with some irritation at myself.  It was such a small thing to do – just a few words.  God wasn’t asking me to sacrifice a son or anything.  Why did I have to make it such a big deal, anyhow?  It was a big deal because all choices concerning God are a big deal.  What we choose in the small moments sets us up for what we will choose in the bigger moments.  What we do in the moments only we and God know about shows our true heart condition.  That’s what God’s tests are about – not to make us fail but to show us where we need to improve so we can walk closer with Him. 

How do we tell if it is God or a random thought?

Yesterday, I was at the store where I talked to the clerk in the Cat Chow incident.   As I went to check out, it was a different clerk and the thought crossed my mind that maybe God wanted me to talk to her, too.  I have to admit the fear immediately set in again.  But I wasn’t sure if it was God or just a random thought.  How do we tell, anyhow?  Romans 12:2 tells us.  It says to test the will of God.  That’s what I did.  I stopped for a minute and just asked Him.  I prayed, “Really?  Do I really need to do the exact same thing again?  I mean, You know I will because I learned that lesson last time.  But do You seriously need me to say it to this clerk, too?”  And then I was silent and listened.  There was nothing – no prompting, no guilt as I contemplated not doing it – nothing.  So I prayed, “Okay, but if You want me to do it, let me know.”  And you know what happened?  I forgot all about it!  God took it out of my mind because it was not His will for me this time.  I didn’t know if it was real and was sincerely trying to discern His will.  And He let me know by taking the thought away.  What an amazing God we serve!

Start the day by choosing to serve God. 

We make an average of 35,000 choices every day.  That adds up to a million choices a month.  Granted, some of them are not going to affect our relationship with God one way or the other.  I don’t think God convicted anyone for wearing the wrong color of socks.  But of those million little choices, how many of them are a battle between conforming to the world and submitting to God?  How many times do we make a choice that doesn’t honor God and we don’t stop long enough to even realize it?  Testing the will of God is not just a weapon to pull out when you are afraid you are going to have to talk to a grocery clerk.  It is a way of being.  It is having had enough experiences of obedience that you can tell with the choice in front of you how God is prompting you.  It is spending enough time in the Word of God that you begin to know what He sounds like and what He feels like.  And even more importantly, it is making a daily commitment to choosing Him over the world.  Joshua tells us in Joshua 24:15 we should choose this day whom we will serve, and then he tells us he is personally choosing to serve God.  Start the day by choosing to serve God.  Pray for Him to guide you and prompt you in correct choices.  Pray for Him to convict you of wrong choices.  And then tomorrow, pray to choose to serve Him that day too, and the next, and the next.  As we practice listening and obeying, His voice becomes clearer and stronger.  May He guide us through all of the choices we are facing today.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.