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The society we live in offers an abundance of choices, too many at times to take in. I find large box stores to be overwhelming to go into, with their cavernous high ceilings and seemingly endless rows of goods piled high. Finding what I want can be daunting, and I usually end up in the work boots aisle, when I am tracking down the bin of lettuce! I prefer smaller establishments where I generally know where things are kept, and a kind clerk can escort me to the right shelf, where there are fewer brand choices, but time is saved in looking for them.
The choices I make in my faith journey are more profound than ones made while shopping, of course, but there is Someone who made the greatest choice of all, In order to sanctify me. "Therefore, when He came into the world, He said, 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me,. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure'. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come – in the volume of the book it is written of Me – to do Your will, O God'. Previously saying, 'Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor take pleasure in them' (which were offered according to the law), then He said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God'. He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all." (Hebrews 10:5-10 NKJV)
Throughout His ministry on earth, Jesus declared His desire to follow God’s will, and He ultimately declared this desire at the Garden of Gethsemane (See Luke 22:35-44) in choosing death on the cross, to do God’s will. This sacrifice was planned as our world was being created (See I Peter 1:20) but it was still Jesus’ choice to submit to death, at the time set since time began. All for us, all chosen so that we, His children, can be sanctified and saved through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. The animal sacrifices, repeated over and over in the old Covenant only covered sin, but Jesus, the perfect sacrifice of the new Covenant removes our sin, once and for all.
What choice will you make today? Will you keep trying to make yourself holy and acceptable to God through your own efforts, knowing your human failings will drag you down again and again? Or will you lift your eyes to Jesus, who chose to offer Himself willingly on the cross to obey God’s will and open the doors of heaven to you? Seek the Chosen One and know He loves and forgives you, once and for always.
Prayer: Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace (H.H. Lemmel). Thank you , Lord Jesus, for the choice you made for me, and now I choose You. Amen.
Shirley Moulton
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