Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Who Will You Vote For Today?

Elections have a way of bringing into sharp focus the need to make clear, firm choices on some occasions.  We know that we cannot fill out a ballot voting for both candidates at the same time.  One must be chosen.  This made me think about another clear choice that must be made, and some lessons that we can learn about making that choice.

Elections Involve Campaigning
-              In the recent political election, billions of dollars were spent in an effort to get you to choose one candidate or the other.  Each candidate spent countless hours strategizing and working to win votes.  Every resource was exhausted in an all-out campaign to get you to choose them.
                 In a more important election, both God and Satan want you to choose them to be in control of your life.  Those are the only two candidates available, and you don't get to write in another option.  Both have gone all-out.  Satan will try any trick that he can to destroy you.  Jesus paid the ultimate price to gain you.  

Elections Involve Choice
     You must choose.  That's how this works. Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Likewise, James 4:4 tells us, "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."  We simply cannot have it both ways.
     Responsible voters choose carefully after giving serious thought to the main issues.  Other voters might be more flippant with their decision, but the vote is cast one way or another.  In a political election, we might be frustrated that other voters don’t see things our way, and that choices are made contrary to our judgment. We might point fingers or feel helpless.  
     In this way, our spiritual choice is totally different.  In the spiritual election, no one else gets a vote.  It’s all your call.  The choice will be made in a landslide vote of 1-0.  The winner gets 100% of the vote.  There is nobody else to blame for a poor decision, and nobody else to save you from your own poor choice.  

Elections Involve Consequences
-               In political elections, leaders are chosen and policies are made that have real effects on the future.  We may love or loath the results, but they are real nonetheless.  
-               In the spiritual election, the consequences are unavoidable.  Our eternal destiny hangs in the balance.  I am reminded strongly of the words of  Joshua 24:15 (NKJV) And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
         The political election is over for now, but there is still a greater vote that you must cast.  Who gets your vote for Lord of your life?  It is the most important choice you'll ever make.

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