choices Archives - Sherry Stahl

Sometimes You Have to Make A Choice And Live By It

“The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy.
I have come in order that you
might have life—
life in all its fullness. “
~John 10:10 Good News Translation

This weekend I spoke at a women’s event in Toronto. My cousin Kelly came to help me sell books and jewelry. After that, Kelly and I met up with my sister Lori at a mall. Three female cousins in a mall should equate to a lot of sales for any shopping center if it weren’t for our indecisive trio. It’s clearly a faulty family gene. If I don’t decide quickly without a lot of thought, I can overthink things. To help me make decisions I’ve resorted to creating excel spreadsheets. Todd understands this weird way about me so when we start talking about purchasing something new he’ll say, “Well, here comes a new spreadsheet!” Yes, I’m ‘that’ person! The inner excel Geek is pretty strong in this girl J I used to just write a pros and cons list on a sheet of paper to help me make decisions, but once I learned Excel the decision-making process got a little longer and a lot more detailed. This pattern in my life has helped and hindered me. If I’m not careful I can waste too much time deciding but eventually, you have to make a choice!

SO MUCH OF LIFE IS A CHOICE

The little word might in today’s verse comes with an invitation to make a choice. I don’t know how I missed this before. This is a Scripture I memorized in my youth, so it can roll off my tongue with the speed of a commuter train. Yet, in all the decades I’ve been quoting John 10:10, I’ve never thought much about the word ‘might’, when Jesus says He has “come in order that you might have life—life in all its fullness”. Sometimes it’s the smallest words that make the biggest statement. Jesus’ promise of an abundant, rich, satisfying, full life is conditional, it’s not a given. Often in Scripture God’s promises start with an emphatic ‘I will’, but Christ’s offer here is not a guarantee.

In my understanding from researching the original Hebrew wording of this verse; it might be better translated into English to say, “the thief comes so that he ‘might steal’, ‘might kill’, and ‘might destroy’.¹ In this verse, Jesus is offering to give you something while the thief Satan is attempting to take some things from you. Neither action is guaranteed to happen. The choice is yours to make. You can choose to receive and live the full life Christ intended for you, or you can allow the enemy opportunity to take from you. I firmly believe that even in times when the enemy does accomplish his purpose in your life by taking from you, that doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your life abundant, well… it doesn’t have to mean that, because it’s a choice. Living in an abundance mindset; one that believes God is not limited and He always has more; helps you rise above any circumstance where the enemy effectively steals, kills or destroys in your life. Living in the abundance mindset will give you the strength to endure any loss as you trust, God has more good things in store for you.

So much of life is a choice, but the choice of whether or not to accept Christ’s offer of the abundant life should be a no-brainer, no-spreadsheet kind of decision J Honor Christ today by living your life to the full, expecting more and making your life all God hoped it would be!

Prayer

Father… Thank you for giving me the ability to choose. Help me to break patterns of indecisiveness, and my tendencies to waffle back and forth when trying to live out a commitment I’ve made. Break the shackles of lack off my mind and increase my faith to believe in Your abundant supply. Since I have Your divine power dwelling inside of me, I have the ability to make wise choices, so I choose to receive and live in the abundant life you’ve offered. In Jesus Name…Amen

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