"Walk before Me"
“If you take the left,
then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the
left”
—Genesis 13:9
As
soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically
gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by
right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to
waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows
you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the
appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if
you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice
for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual
through obedience to His voice. Whenever our right becomes
the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest
enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not
quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage,
it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to
choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a
fool for not choosing. Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because
we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to
make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard
which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, “walk before Me.”
Gen. 17:1
Devotional for May 25th
from Oswald Chambers book…My Utmost for
His Highest.
Devotionals share insight to God’s word and
will lead us to a better understanding of His plan for man.
1)”These things are yours by right, but if you
are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights,
and let God make your choice for you.”
This fascinated me because… I
have free will and why would God want to choose for me? The key to this verse are these words…”but
if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your
right to waive your rights”… Ahhhhh…The choice is still mine to make.
God did not impede on my right to choose.
I by my choice, gave Him the right to choose for me.
2)”The good is always the enemy of the best.” The
“good” is always the enemy of the “best.” God always chooses what’s best for us. It may not align with our
thinking but it is what’s best for us. The enemy appears to be what we think is good for us. Perhaps
that’s what John the Baptist meant when he said “He must increase,
but I must decrease.”
We need to push our self-righteous, self-serving attitude
out and fill the vacancy with humility. Then and only then will we be able to understand
God’s choice for us.
By Carl M. Namahoe
5/26/2012
