CHOICES – CHOOSE WISELY

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely,
if anything but death separates you and me.”
RUTH 1:16-17

You may have heard the phrase,
“We are not born losers, we are born choosers.”
This phrase applies to all of us as we live out our lives.
Each day we are faced with choices, and some of these choices
can have the potential of changing our lives forever.

Ruth was someone who faced life changing choices.
She had to make a choice to return to her people with her sister-in-law, Orpha,
or to go with her mother-in-law, Naomi.
Ruth chose to go with her mother-in-law.

She had a choice of being identified as a pagan Moabite
or to associate with the people of Israel.
She chose the people of Israel.

She had a choice of worshipping the idol Chemosh
(which involved the sacrifice of children),
or to put her trust in the living God,
(who gives life instead of taking it).
She chose Jehovah.

These were important choices for Ruth – she made determined choices that changed her life.

Just like Ruth, we are all born outside of God’s family.
However, God gives us the opportunity to make a choice that can give us eternal life.

Instead of living out your life in Satan’s kingdom of darkness,
you can choose to cross over to the kingdom of God’s Son.
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”
(Col. 1:13).

You can choose to continue living in the darkness of sin or walk in God’s light.
The scriptures tell us to not be associated with immoral people.
“Therefore do not be partners with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all
goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.”
(Eph. 5:7-10).

You can choose to depend on the world for providing your fulfillment
or you can place your trust in Jesus, who has promised to meet all your needs.
“And my God will meet all your needs
according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
(Phil. 4:19).

Ruth had crucial decisions and so do we.
Her determined decisions changed her life and ours will do the same for us.

Incidentally, some believe that only the ‘elect’ can be saved, but who are the ‘elect’?
“Elect” means to choose, so the elect should mean the “choosers”.
Since we all have an opportunity to ‘choose’ to walk in darkness
or walk in God’s light, then the ‘elect’ must mean everyone.

What decisions have you made, especially the ones that affect your eternal destiny?
If you have not made a choice to walk in the light,
then by default you have chosen to walk in darkness.
You either choose God or choose the world, but you can’t choose both.
The choice is yours, but if you choose not to choose, then you’ve made a choice.
This is the most important choice you’ll ever make so choose wisely – choose God.