January 29 – Revealing Choices

“The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires.”(Proverbs 11:6)

IN WORD:
Choices. Every one of them, in a sense, is a test. Why? Because they reveal our desires. Sometimes the desires they reveal have no moral or spiritual consequences — our taste in food or clothes, for example. Other times, the desires revealed by our choices have a profound spiritual result: Our taste for obedience is exposed. We may find out if we treasure expedience or righteousness. We may display whether we prefer physical or spiritual satisfaction. Our deepest loves come to the surface in the choices we make. Even when we deny our strong desires, we demonstrate that we must have had even stronger ones directing our choices.
Anyone who has ever struggled with repeating bad choices — in other words, virtually all of us — knows the ability of desires to trap us. They can compel us to act contrary to our own conscience. Like Paul in Romans 7, we often do what we don’t want to do, and don’t do what we actually want to do. We have a deep-rooted inability to live according to the law of God within us.
Only Jesus can set us free from this inability. It is not always a matter of simple obedience. But even as He begins to set us free, we must be reminded of the gravity of our choices. Obedience counts. In our most tempting and repeatable sins, we must realize that we give God clear answers to our tests. We prefer to satisfy wrong desires over obeying Him.

IN DEED:
Have you struggled with an addictive behavior? Have you repeated the same sin over & over? Understand the statement you are making when you indulge in it: You prefer the passing pleasure of a sinful desire to the fellowship that comes from obedience. It’s a revealing choice. Refuse to be trapped by it. Let righteousness — an unrivaled desire for God — deliver you.

“Holy obedience puts to shame all natural and selfish desires.”
-St. Francis of Assisi-