a whiner or a winner. it's your choice...

july 23, 2009
it is important to note that there is a parallel between GOD's resources and your choice. GOD has the resource of HIS word; you choose to read it. GOD has the HOLY SPIRIT; you choose to depend on HIM. GOD uses circumstances; you choose your response to circumstances.

james 1.2-4 (ms), consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. you know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. so don't try to get out of anything prematurely. let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

you see, the CHRISTian life is not a one time event. you're born again and then sanctified but you've also got to grow, develop, work out the salvation you've been given. you develop it. and the more you use your muscles the more you develop your muscles. there is a process going on in your life to produce mature character. that's GOD's goal – CHRIST-like character in your life.

and james is saying i can choose my response to life.

victor frankel, the famous psychologist, was imprisoned in one of the concentration camps in world war 2. he said one day they had stripped him naked, taken his clothes, shoes, family, his wedding ring. he said they had taken away everything physically that they could. but standing there in front of the nazi soldiers he realized there was one thing that could never be taken from him. and that was his choice of how to respond to the circumstances he experienced in life. and that is ultimate freedom.

you cannot choose what is going to happen to you next week, next month, next year. we don't have that choice. a little over 2 years ago we found out that margaret, my wife had cancer. not our choice but we found that you can choose how you're going to respond, how you're going to react – whether it's going to make you or break you, whether you're going to be bitter or better, whether it's going to be a stepping stone to maturity or a stumbling block to failure. your choice is the way you choose to respond to the circumstances that come into your life.

now what really matters in life the most is not what happens to you. but what happens in you is what matters most. and that is a choice.

we've seen people put in the same bad circumstances. one will come out a winner and the other will come out a whiner. one's complaining and the other is turning it into a gold mine.

you do have a choice.

just a thought from the front porch...