Good morning all!
Father, we know that You have chosen to make us in Your image and Your likeness. We know that by Your loving hand You have created man to dwell in unity and as Your word declares this is good and pleasant in Your sight. We pray Lord that Your likeness becomes our likeness, and in turn Your choice becomes our choice, Amen. Have you ever thought about that, the fact that God has made choices? Like the color of the sky? The size of the earth? The size of heaven? What choice?
Isa 14:1 KJV – For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
The Lord has mercy on us, and chooses us again, He sets us where we belong: He joins us with strangers and there’s complete unity.
Isa 14:2 KJV – And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
And all that the Lord gather in the land will possess that which has been given by the Lord, and they will all be captivated and no longer be oppressed.
Isa 14:3 KJV – And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
And that day the Lord will give you rest from, sorrow, fear, slave work and bondage.
Isa 14:4 KJV – That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
Now you can speak this proverb for yourself because your oppressor has stopped and your golden city has no hold on you.
Bottom line
What do we think God’s choice for us is? The first choice He made was mercy, so when did that change?
Mal 3:6 KJV – For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. This just in church…it never changes, God will always have mercy on us, the only thing that does change is the way we think about God’s divine love for us. What exactly is divine love? It’s connected to God’s next choice. God says He will YET choose, that means He will choose us AGAIN. Now remember, Israel has chosen to serve false gods while under captivity. Anyone else ever do that? Perhaps not literally but perhaps spiritually? Like when things don’t go the way we want or the way we like, do we still trust in God and follow His word? Or do we take matters into our own hands and figure out how to do it ourselves? This is also known as being unfaithful towards God, it’s not that we don’t believe in Him or love Him…Israel did that, yet God said they were unfaithful. And here God chooses us again because we’ve been unfaithful, we left Him He didn’t leave us. We leave Him when we don’t live by faith, instead we live based on a set of conditions and when we don’t like the conditions we choose something other than God’s word for our life…unfaithful. I mean can you tell God that your faithful and then turnaround and not love your neighbor? Forgive your neighbor? The two become one, we already know God’s choice. Now we can go down the road of asking who’s our neighbor, that’s’ what lawyer asked Jesus remember? You know the one that looks for the legal loop hole rather than looking to reflect the heart of Christ. Do you really want to know what God’s choice for your life is?
Psa 119:133 KJV – Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. The Bible is full of God’s choices for our life, this is why Jeremiah said when I found Your words I ate them and they brought me joy. You want unparalleled joy in your life? Consume God’s word, make God’s word your number one choice not your second. And why does God want us to make Him our first choice? Look at verse 3 in this passage, He wants all your sorrow and all your fear and all your bondage to end. The ONLY way that’s gonna happen in our life is if we remain faithful to God, faithful to His word but I know when I do I have complete victory in my life and nothing can oppress me. Verse 4 God says the oppressor has stopped and that golden city is gone also, and why? The king of Babylon no longer rules my kingdom. It’s a picture, the king is religious confusion that places demands on people. I mean, can you place demands on people in your life and show them mercy at the same time? Again, what is God’s choice?
Hos 6:6 KJV – For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. We all worship God in many different ways and that’s okay, however, we need to put things in proper order…mercy first before your sacrifice and having a relationship with the Living God more than your offerings. When you and I live like that, we’ll be joined to those we’ve estranged in life and live in unity with them…that requires a relationship and that requires mercy, what other choice is there?
Point to Ponder
Does God’s choice really include me? Psa 145:9 NLT – The LORD is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation. Everyone is everyone…you get good and compassion from Him, I’d say that’s the start of a good day!
Let’s all choose Christ, In Him Phil
Faith – Family – Friends
