Decisions in daily life

How many decisions do you make in a day? Hundreds or Thousands? From getting up to what you wear, what to eat for breakfast, what to shop for, what to do without. How much time you spend with God and those around you. Some decisions are simple and require no thought, while others require careful attention. Other decisions are made by not making a choice - we postpone them until they are no longer necessary or we need to put them out like a fire.

The same goes for our thoughts. We can choose where our minds go, what to think about, and what to think about. Making decisions about what to think about can be a lot harder than deciding what to eat or wear. Sometimes my mind goes where I don't want it, apparently all by itself. Then I find it difficult to contain these thoughts and steer them in another direction. I suppose we all suffer from a lack of mental discipline in our 24 hour information overload with desired instant gratification. We slowly got used to shorter attention spans until we can't read something if it's more than a paragraph or even forty characters.

Paul describes his own experience: “I have been crucified with Christ who now lives, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2,20)In the crucified life, it is about the daily, hourly, and even instantaneous decision to put down the old self with its practices and to put on the new life in Christ, which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator. “But now you also must put off all of these: anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, because you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Kol 3,8-10).

Switching off the old self, the old self (we all have one), takes work. It's a real battle, and it continues around the clock. How do we achieve this? By choosing to focus our thoughts on Jesus. "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." (Kol 3,1).

As I just read in a devotional, we wouldn't need him if it were easy. It may be the hardest thing we ever do. If we don't completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, trust in the help and power of God and the Holy Spirit, and rely on him, nothing will happen to help us. "Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." (Röm 6,4).

We have already been crucified with Christ, but like Paul we die every day so that we can live the risen life with Christ. It is the best decision in our life.

by Tamy Tkach