We've all heard the term "life or death situation" used to describe a very critical situation or emergency. We don't hear the term too often because there aren't too many instances in typical, everyday life that could be classified as these (..well, unless you're like, a firefighter, paramedic, doctor, or police officer). We often get a little uncomfortable and scared in the situations because of their magnitude and importance.
What if I told you that every day is a life or death situation?
Deuteronomy 30:19 says "This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live"
Now, I have a feeling I know what you're thinking (and if it's not what you're thinking, then you're suspicions that I am not psychic have just been confirmed, yay!)
How do I choose life?
That's what you were thinking, right?
...I knew it!
You can choose life by choosing to follow Jesus. In Luke 9:23-24 Jesus says "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it." Isn't it ironic how we have to die to ourselves daily in order to gain life? Well, despite the irony, it's true. By dying to old selves, we become new, more beautiful creations in Jesus Christ. Instead of being burdened with our old sins and failures, our new self is free and alive and radiant with the joy of Jesus Christ. Everday you have to make this choice, will I die to myself and choose life or will I serve myself and give in to the temporary pleasures of a lost and dying world? The choice is yours, and it is my prayer that you will all make the right one even if it means stepping outside of your comfort zone or saying "no" to temptation when it can be so hard not to.
Another great passage that explains this is Ephesians 2:1-10, which says:
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
I recently studied this verse in a devotional called "Becoming God's True Woman While I Still Have A Curfew" and the book suggested replacing the second-person pronouns (you's and the like) with first person pronouns (I's and me's). If you have trouble really understanding this message on the intimate and personal level at which it was written, then try using that strategy. Then, maybe, you can better grasp the fact that it was YOU who was dead in your sin, it's YOU whom God showed mercy, grace, and amazing love to, it's YOU to whom God offers the opportunity that if you will take up your cross and die to your old, burdened self, then He will make you alive and a new creation who is free of all of their sins, troubles, and burdens because He will take them from you. God is offering this to anyone who will believe and have the faith to turn their life over to Him, the question is, are you willing to sacrifice your old life in order to become the new creation that God is ready to transform you into?
