Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Over the years, I've enjoyed ministering to people all over the world, offering hope, a positive world view, and laying fundamental truth for transformation.  It's been awesome to watch lives change but also very painful to watch when people choose not to change.  In the last 10 days, I've spent a lot of time praying for people who have lost their loved ones (one to cancer, two to heart disease, and one to suicide), three who have chosen their addictions over living lives of faith and promise - hurting their loved ones again, two major accidents, and couples who decided to end their marriages - all because of their own fight/flight behavior.  Drug use/Divorce/and other pain fleeing choices are evidence of not putting faith and trust in Jesus providing us the solutions to the problems we face in life.

There is a solution to every problem we face in life in the Bible. It addresses our selfishness, sinfulness, rebellion, and refusal to grow up!  It's all a decision.  There is no one who any of us can blame for the choices we make in life.  We can make wise decisions or poor ones.  The outcomes of our lives are all based on the choices we make.  I may be called to minister to the broken but the broken have to make a decision to be healed.  One of the greatest questions Jesus asked was in John 5 "Do you want to be healed?"  The couple struggling with one another needs to ask themselves "Do you want to be healed?  The grief stricken person struggling with negative emotions has to be asked, "Do you want to be healed?  The drug addict has to be asked, "Do you want to be healed?  Only they can answer the question.

It is always amazing to me that the same adversity that cause some people to break is the very thing that cause others to break through in life.  God's call on all of us is to "grow up" and take responsibility and make wise decisions.  

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; 

do not depend on your own understanding. 

Seek his will in all you do, and 

he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)