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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Decisions

Many times we make decisions and never consider the repercussions of consequences. We believe that our decisions are our own but that is really the furthest thing from the truth. Decisions have results that spread out like ripples in a pond. Have you ever a thrown a rock into a pond? It creates hundreds of ripples. So too, decisions can have hundreds of consequences. Many decisions made in haste in my younger days have returned to me as ripples of consequences that cannot be undone. Today I was hit with a tidal wave of a ripple and my heart was broken. Oh how I wish I could have known those decisions carry such a heavy weight and they usually happen when I least expect them. No amount of "good living" or repentance removes those consquences and no amount of preparedness makes the blow any less painful. But I am consoled when I read the Word and see how the Lord redeems those who have blown it and even when I suffer heavy consequences, He will be there to bless me again.

We look at the lives of people in the Bible, like David and Moses and wonder how they could make such poor decisions and yet the Lord redeems them. David chose adultery with a woman who was not innocent of sin, and then the two of them conspired to murder her husband. Their consequences were to suffer the loss of a child as a result. But the Lord didn't leave them in the devastation of their consequences. We read that David fasted for three days when his child was dying but when he died then David washed and ate. We wonder why he would fast during the child's sickness but then seem to be okay when the child died. David understood that he couldn't change God's mind about consequences but he could intreat God in the hope that he would extend more mercy. When he knew the child died, he understood that not all consequences can be undone, a price has to be paid. But God did redeem David and loved David, and he did turn around and bless them with a second child, who would become a wise king, that child was Solomon.

Moses murdered an Egyptian and later God would use him to lead His people out of Egypt. (Exodus 2:12-14) He then spent 40 years leading those rebellious people through the wilderness but under the pressure of leading them he became frustrated with their rebellion, he prayed for water for the people as he had done previously and though he heard the Lord instruct him to speak to the rock and it would bring forth water, in his frustration he struck the rock instead, and in one fail swoop missed his opportunity to cross into the land that was promised them that 40 years. (Exodus 20:12) Imagine with me the remorse he must have felt from one wrong choice. The Lord later appeared in the promised land, with Moses and another prophet (during what is called the transfiguration) before His disciples Peter, James and John. So Moses was able to see the promised land before he died but was in it with the Lord during the transfiguation. (Mark 9:2-8)

I pray today that I would always to call upon the Lord first, to wait for His answers and trust Him with every decision, remembering that this too will affect others and will create ripples of consequence. I pray that the results of my choices would create consequences that bless and not bring pain.

It is so important to allow God to reveal His will for us as He has already seen the beginning from the end.

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