Choices and Consequences

Choices and Consequence
We might like to blame God or someone else for the catastrophes that occur in our lives, but most times, we need just look in the mirror. How are we our own worst enemy? We are so naturally self centered and human that most times all we can think of is what we want out of life. We have become a nation of commercialism and instant gratification. We learn to make decisions that affect us, in the moment, with little to no thought about consequence. We develop a pattern of life choices such as how we communicate with others, who we become friends with and how we behave in the work world, etc. We don’t always recognize the cause and effect of our own choices until we have built up an incredible history of ‘choices’ that suffocate us. Each action always has a re-action, not just natural consequences but internal consequence. Internal consequence is guilt.
Guilt seems harmless enough. Guilt has little impact if you are so worldly that you bury it beneath the rubble of pain and anger and ignore it when it regurgitates in your life. But guilt is used against your soul and impacts your future decisions. Guilt erodes your self-esteem. For example, if I start partying and doing drugs and hanging out with the wrong crowd, I eventually become known as a druggie or hood. I may initially think it is cool and live in my sin, accepting the consequence and basking in the glory of my path. I may look at others and make fun because they aren’t cool like me or they just don’t know what they are missing. But somewhere along the way, I begin to feel ‘bad.’ Instead of basking in my darkest power, I begin to wallow in misery. I begin to view myself in a negative way and envy other’s light. I recognize my life is unhappy and filled with chaos. I have an intense desire to change it BUT I just don’t think I DESERVE to be anywhere but in the mess I have made for myself. Inside I cry out for change but I tell myself that I am not like everyone else. THEY have something I will never have because they haven’t DONE what I have done, so I will NEVER be anything other than this. This takes longer to write than it takes to think. Often times we push it down so fast we don’t even realize it is a thought in our minds. We ignore it, throw up our hands and say “To heck with it” and continue to make more bad choices based on that assessment.
You have dug such a deep hole that you just can’t see the light. The natural consequences of your actions make you feel even more defeated, and you sink deeper into the guilt and worthlessness. It is a vicious circle.
Since you feel that you aren’t as good as anyone else, then it is a natural reaction to protect yourself from harm and reject anyone who tries to come up along-side you with hope. You live a self fulfilled prophesy of your own doing. You figure that you will put on this hard exterior to protect yourself. If anyone else comes at you with love and hope, you can act like you don’t care when it eats you up inside. What a slippery slope, huh?
Think about this though: Back in the tenth century before Christ, the book of Proverbs was written. Proverbs 1:20-33 says: Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you- when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear or harm.”
It is common sense. If you ignore the wisdom of your own conscience, you will suffer the consequences of your actions. But the consequences, as I told you before, are far more reaching than those you endure from outside yourself. You become a self-loathing, self-destructive human being who acts like a warrior but cries out inside for fulfillment.
Ephesians 6:12- “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Don’t kid yourself into thinking you have accomplished all this on your own. Satan loves to convince you that you are not worthy of forgiveness. After all, the worldly way of thinking is that Satan doesn’t exist, so he has that going for him too. We picture demons and beasts and visible attacks that are obvious in nature, if he were to attack. Oh, but it is so much simpler than that.
Satan is the great deceiver. When he comes, he will charm and delight millions. Do you think he would waste time on the obvious? He is a fallen angel with beauty and wisdom like those angels of light. He is perfectly capable of working our own weaknesses against us. And look around at the condition of the world. Grandparents raising children, absent fathers, drug addicted parents, abusive parents and spouses, child molesters, rapists, porn addicts, sociopaths, stripper clubs, loss of morals, children committing mass act s of violence, law suits for yard disputes… Do you not see the battle laid out before you? I do.
Did you know that Satan’s main goal is to keep you from turning to God?
I see satan at play in the everyday events and people. You can recognize him at play in the person who makes snide remarks behind someone’s back to arouse another’s anger. People who get puffed up with pride and step all over others. Those who would sell out their mother or best friend to save face, fit in or make a buck. People who just keep stumbling into satan’s plan to tear them down and they don’t even recognize the damage of guilt and shame that follows. But we MUST not believe that THAT is all we are.
Satan is successful because those who guilt themselves into feeling unforgiven and unworthy continue to separate themselves from not only their family and friends, but from the God. Your guilt keeps you from trusting that He can save you, too. Your shame keeps you from turning to God just as sure as it keeps you from turning back to your loved ones for help. You can fall a million times but as long as your heart is right with the Lord, and you know Christ died on the cross for your sins, He will provide the Holy Spirit within you to do what cannot be done by human design! Some people accept the process all at once and are able to never make a mistake, on the surface. But most of us are forever struggling with our own human nature and just doing our best not to stumble too hard. But stumble we do. We are HUMAN.
The bible is a living and breathing testament to God’s great love. It is filled with some of the most unconditional loving acts and promises ever known to man. What we hear in church is simply a snippet of what is there to nuture our faith and understanding of God. The Word speaks more common sense values and the importance of loving one another and not judging and forgiving than we ever could fathom.
Before Christ died for our sins and then rose again, He promised the disciples that [John 16:7-8] “But I tell you the truth: It is for your own good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:” [John 16: 13] But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
You see, the Holy Spirit was left to us to convict us of guilt related to sin (conscience, intuition, gut instinct) and to attempt to guide us to righteousness and away from judgment.
The Holy Spirit will convict us and try to keep us from sinning, but once you choose a path that you know is wrong, He steps back and you are on your own… unless you cry out to Him. Without consequence there is no growth, no understanding, no deterrence, no remorse. Without deep remorse, there is no forgiveness and we might never fall to our knees and beg God to forgive us and to guide us to make it right. You see, He desires for us to come to Him without sin, but He knows that we are human and therefore born inherently with sin in our hearts. Even when we do the right thing, it is rarely for the right reasons! We desire recognition from others, or we want to feel good about ourselves, but it is rarely unselfishly that we do anything. How often have you done something solely for the good cause and NOT told a soul about it? Listen to your thoughts all day. You may say the right thing and do the right thing, but inside you may have resentment, bitterness, anger, jealousy, vindictiveness… It is the stuff we are made of because only one was made perfect and without sin.