Choices God wants you
God wants an intimate relationship with you simply because He Loves you! God doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need what you can do for Him. After all, He IS GOD! Nothing is impossible with HIM or for HIM! He could create millions of adoring beings with just a Word. Why then are you so important to HIM? The answer lies in the manner in which HE Created you – you are called a human being made in His Image. Once created in the act of “Conception” you are an “Eternal Being” as is God! He created you personally. In the womb of your mother He skillfully wove your body and being together. Psalms 139:13-17 states, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (NIV) All human life is “Created” by God and from the point of creation is “Eternal.”
In Genesis 1:26-27 we read these Words, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Notice that in these two verses the term “Created in God’s Image” occurs three times. Something about us (mankind) is very special in God’s Eyes. What does “Created in God’s Image” really mean? I believe that most of us would first think of our “physical image” as being in the Image of God. That may or may not be true. Being “Created in God’s Image” may mean several things beyond our current ability to grasp or understand. However, I have become convinced that one important aspect of the meaning of being “Created in God’s Image” is that He made us with the ability to “freely choose.” Think of it, God made you and me with the freedom to choose HIM or reject HIM – to “Worship HIM” or to “shake our finger” in His Face. This is a “God Like” ability that HE gave us. As HE has the complete freedom to choose, HE chose to make us that way – in His Image!
Since God made us with the ability to freely choose – to make choices without interference, when we do choose HIM – when we do choose to have an intimate relationship with Him – when we do voluntarily and freely choose to Worship HIM, HE is blessed by us especially since we are doing this voluntarily and of our own “free will!” I believe that we have great difficulty in comprehending just how much this “act of our free will” blesses God. How it blesses HIM when we voluntarily and lovingly call HIM, “OUR FATHER!” How it blesses HIM when we freely bow before HIM and give Him our THANKS, our PRAISE, and our WORSHIP! Allow me to point out here that not everyone can refer to God as “Father.” Everyone can refer to god as “My Creator” but only those who have really become “His Children” by “freely choosing” His Plan of Salvation can accurately call Him “Father.”
King David is described in God’s Word as “The Apple of God’s Eye.” In other words, David was viewed as “Very Special” in God’s Eyes. Why was this so? If we read the Psalms of David I believe we can readily find the answer. David spoke frequently of His joy in giving God Worship, Praise, and Thanksgiving! God ‘Enjoys” our Worship! HE “Rejoices” in our Praise! HE is “Pleased” with our Thanksgiving! Realize, dear one, that YOU CAN BLESS GOD! As Hebrews 13:15 states, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess his name.” We all need to grasp and understand this truth. We can “choose” to reject God or we can choose to accept Him, to “Honor” Him, and to “Worship” Him! We can also choose to reject His Plan of Salvation (Jesus Christ) or accept His “Freely Given Plan of Salvation” that is found in Jesus Christ alone!
GOD could have created us without the ability to freely choose. HE could have created us as “Robots” programmed to Praise HIM, to Honor HIM, to Worship HIM, and to give HIM thanksgiving day and night – 24 hours of every day. But, where would be the “Glory” to GOD in such an arrangement. There would be none! So, GOD chose to make us in HIS Image – with the ability of making choices on the basis of our own “Free Will.” Having this “Free Will” there is great Glory to GOD when we do “freely” choose to give HIM our Worship, our Praise, and our Thanksgiving. How HE Rejoices in this Adoration that is given to HIM FREELY – without any forcing, interfering, or influencing of any kind.
If God truly wants us because HE LOVES us, and HE DOES, then why does HE LOVE us so much? The answer is simple, even if it hard for us to comprehend. HE LOVES us because it is HIS NATURE to LOVE. In fact it is so much “The Character” of GOD that The Apostle John describes GOD as “LOVE!” In 1 John 4:8 we read, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” In 1 John 4:16 we read, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. GOD is Love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” And in the very familiar scripture found in John 3:16 we read, “For God so loved the world (MANKIND) that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” GOD IS LOVE! “So, HE LOVES us simply because it is HIS NATURE – HIS CHARACTER IS TO “LOVE.” Again, it is our choice to accept or reject His Great Love!
GOD LOVES us with “AGAPE” LOVE. This is a LOVE that is constant, it does not change, it does not go up or down, and it is not affected by our behavior. We cannot do anything that will make GOD LOVE us more than HE DOES because HIS LOVE is PERFECT and COMPLETE. Neither can we do anything that will make GOD LOVE us LESS than HE DOES. GOD’S LOVE IS PERFECT – UNWAVERING – LACKING NOTHING!
This “GREAT LOVE” of God is demonstrated beautifully in Psalm 139. This beautiful Psalm tells how God “knit” us together (formed us) in our mother’s womb. In Psalm 139:13-17 we read this marvelous account of our formation, “For you (God) created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (NIV) Yes, God forms every tiny baby in the womb of his mother from the very point of conception. How sad that today we as a nation legally view the unborn as worthless tissue that can be “disposed of” in such an uncaring manner called abortion cloaked in the deception of “women’s health.” However, this too shows that God has given us the freedom to choose, as individuals and as a society.
God’s LOVE for us is so GREAT that HE DESIRES that every person come to KNOW HIS SALVATION – JESUS CHRIST, GOD’S ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. Yes, God’s “Salvation Plan” is a Person – The Person of The Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Peter 3:9 we read, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Sadly, not everyone chooses GOD’S OFFER OF SALVATION IN JESUS CHRIST. In fact, Jesus Himself states that few will actually be saved. In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus states, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Note the use of the term “many” referring to those who enter through the “broad way” that leads to destruction and the term “few” referring to those who enter through the “narrow gate” – JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF! Let’s remember that Jesus stated in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In John 6:40 Jesus states, “For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." And in John 10:27-28 Jesus states, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Of course, God made us with the ability to freely choose. Therefore, each of us can choose to believe these Words of Jesus or to disbelieve. Gaining Eternal Life depends on our “BELIEVING IN AND ON” JESUS CHRIST and receiving HIM into our life as our personal SAVIOR AND LORD!
Yes, GOD WANTS us because He Loves us. And, because He Loves us, He wants us to become His Child. When we become His Child, He makes us a “Joint Heir” with Jesus Christ of all (yes, all) that He has – and that is everything! God wants to make you someone very special. In fact, our Bible tells us that God is working in each one of His Children to finally make us just like Jesus Christ – Perfect in every way. We have His Promise that He will complete this work in us. In Philippians 1:6 we read, “being confident of this, that he (GOD) who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Praise GOD, He does not give up on us!
Dear reader, what choice have you made? Have you chosen Jesus Christ as your Personal Lord and Savior? If you have (or if you will do so now) you have “The Promise of Eternal Life in Heaven” with Our Lord Jesus Christ Forever! Jesus Promises to build you (and all of us who “Trust” in Him) a HOME in Heaven. In John 14:1-6 we read this promise of Jesus, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (NIV)
My prayer for you today is for you to choose wisely. Your “Eternal Destination” depends on THE “FREE CHOICE” YOU MAKE! (Gil Hammond)
Additional Scriptures:
In 1 Corinthians 2:9 we read “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." Ephesians 3:20-21 we read, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Philippians 1:6 we read, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Pastor J. Gilbert Hammond