Guest Builder: Rachel Smith

Luke 22:42
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

I am not the best with directions. I can follow a map just fine, but given the choice to turn right or left, I usually choose incorrectly and end up lost. Even knowing I will choose wrong and purposely choosing the opposite will usually get me lost. I seem to lack an accurate internal compass.

For Christmas my husband got me a GPS navigational devise to use in our van. It will give me directions from just about anywhere to just about anywhere and will even recalculate if I take a wrong turn. It also conveniently advises me on where to eat or shop. But what it can’t do for me is decide.

I can’t help but chuckle over the New York based news story of a young man getting stuck on train tracks because his Garamond said “turn right here.” He listened to the navigational devise and turned, not even noticing the train that was coming. You see even the best advice is just that, advice. I am responsible for where I turn or do not turn. The young man was fine, his car totaled, but he did decide to get out of the car and navigate away from the tracks on his own.

For all of the talking to friends, consulting with family and listening to our spouses well reasoned opinions, the final decision in most things is ultimately ours. That’s how God designed us. He wants us to have free will. He wants us to choose Him, but He does let us choose. And just like being at that turn in the road the action part of choosing is our responsibility alone.

Yes, alone. You are the one and only person that you can never get away from. Every time you look in the mirror, you are there. You may loose family, friends, children and spouses, but you can never truly escape from yourself. Every decision you make must be one you can live with. The most pivotal choice, that of your salvation, must be one you can die with.

If you have chosen Jesus as your savior, you have been given the Holy Spirit to help guide you. But yet you still must keep on choosing. Everyday we choose to obey or not to obey. To listen to His Spirit or listen to the other navigational devises we have come to rely on. (Including ourselves!)

Jesus at Gethsemane had a choice. He found his friends asleep and He went on His own and He prayed. He made a choice we all can live and die with.