Happy New Year everyone! I, for one, am ready for a New Year reset and detox. Through the holidays, I indulged in too much sugar, junk food, and junk entertainment. So, I am kicking off 2024 with my 2nd annual 40-day sugar and junk fast. I’m hopeful that by making more mindful choices on what I put in my body and spirit, I will get my much-needed reset.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the power we have in our choices. For Christmas, the hubs and I received a sign that said, “Today I choose Joy.” We hung it in a prominent place in our living room as a reminder that joy truly is a choice. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that to choose joy is to choose Jesus because you can’t have one without the other.
People have adopted the habit of selecting a word to guide them for the new year. I’ve never done that. But this year is different, as God is nudging me toward the word “choose.” Therefore, I am choosing the word choose as my word for the year (yes, pun was intended).
My desire for 2024 is to learn to consistently choose Jesus. That means I want to regularly choose faith over fear and trust over worry. I want to choose to hope over giving in to despair and to walk in Jesus-power over indulging in self-pity. I long to accept all the beauty God yearns to give me if I choose to let go of my ash heap. And most of all, I want to stop focusing on those who hurt me and instead choose to focus on the One who hurt for me.
Folks, I’m not alone in my need to make better choices. Whenever we choose anger over forgiveness, we have given away our joy. Each time we let resentment creep in, or impatience and mistrust for God gain a foothold in our thoughts, we have just chosen anxiety and fear over our God-given right to live in the “peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7).” In other words, the kind of peace that isn’t reliant on people being nice to us or life being stable and smooth. Yes, we are given the choice to live in peace regardless of whatever life throws at us. It’s a promise from Jesus (John 14:27).
One thing Jesus didn’t promise is that making these kinds of choices would be easy. But He did say He was with us and in us. He is consistently that voice inside that says, “This is the way. Walk in it (Isaiah 30:21).” One thing I am learning as I’m becoming more aware of my power to choose is that walking in joy requires listening to and following that voice all day, every day.
How about you? Would you like to learn to consistently choose joy? Arguably, one of the greatest gifts God has ever given us is the freedom to choose. And I think Moses summed it up best in Deuteronomy 30 when He said, “I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to Him, firmly embracing Him. Oh yes, He is life itself.”
5 Responses
Just amazing and so true. Great job!
You are such a beautiful blessing!!! Thank you for this amazing word!
Thanks for the sign! It made a big impact.
I love this, Cris, and it’s proven true in my life! Our choices (choosing God’s plan) are what allow our Father to “give” us Joy, Hope, and Peace. It doesn’t mean everything will now magically “be better” or “work out” but it does allow Joy, Hope, Peace to reign in our hearts. ❤️ Thanks for being you and following Christ.
Thanks so much. I think we often want a slot machine type of god, where we do certain things and make the “right choices” and think we should come up cherries and have our circumstances change. Papa God is so much better, and the things He offers, Peace, Joy, Hope are refuges in the storms of life. Maybe that’s what Jesus meant when He said we would have suffering in this world, but to be of good cheer (there’s another choice), because He overcame the world? Maybe making the choice to hope is our way to overcome the world?