Choice
By David Berg - May, 1973
It may surprise you to know that God likes you, His children, to make your own choices within His Will! I know you delight yourself in the Lord most of all and want to do His will. But when we do, it is His delight to also give us the desires of our own hearts, because He's the One Who puts them there when we're pleasing Him! If we love the Lord with all our hearts, these personal desires are usually the right ones, because we only want to please Him. So your personal desire in the matter has a great deal to do with God's will. He gives us what we want and have faith for!
But "When in doubt, don't!" For "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." However, if you're truly convinced in your own heart that a thing is God's Will, you should do it no matter what anybody says! But if you're convinced in your own heart that it is not God's Will, you should not do it, no matter what anybody says! But if you're not sure and do not know for sure and have not yet made certain that a thing is God's Will, then the best thing to do, of course, in the case of uncertainty, is to wait on the Lord until He reveals it to you one way or the other.
In the meantime, don't let anybody else tell you that it is of the Lord and okay to go ahead or that it is His Will that you do so, if He has not said so. Just say you're waiting on the Lord to know His Will. Anything is possible, for with God nothing is impossible, for all things are possible to him that believeth. However, you must be personally sure and not be merely swayed by others. It must be your own personal desire from the Lord, in which case it would be of God.
Time is the great tester, so I'd certainly advise you to wait until you're sure of your own mind and heart and God's Will. As Paul says in that 14th Chapter of Romans: "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." And I know He will show you. I do not believe in doing such things merely out of duty alone, particularly in the affairs of the heart, where there must be a great deal of genuine love, personal love, as well as love for God's work and not just a sense of duty. If it's God's Will, He gives us this kind of love, real love. But without such love it could only bring heartache and many people could get hurt, including yourself! But if it is real love, God's Love, it will survive anything. Meanwhile, I would wait on the Lord until you're sure.
It must be up to you personally to make your own choice. You personally must make the choice and the decision is up to you and you alone. No one can make it for you, not even God!
This is one of the mysteries of His will and His plan: That He hath bestowed upon each of us the immortal majesty of personal choice to do either good or evil!––And strange as it may seem to some, it even pleases the Lord to give us our personal choice between several alternative goods, all within His Will, if it is our personal desire, even as we would our own children in letting them pick out their own personal choice of a toy, as long as it is safe and good for them. This is one thing people don't seem to understand about God: He really likes to give us our choice, as long as it is not something bad for us or bad for others.
God will give you whatever you want that's good for you, because He loves you and "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly". If it is good for you and those involved, He will be more than glad to give it to you.––Although sometimes He gives us the desires of our heart but sends leanness to our souls just to teach us a lesson and to show us that we made a foolish choice.
So contrary to popular opinion, God does not usually choose for us!––We have to choose for ourselves, find His Will for ourselves, seek Him diligently to know His Will and to know what is best for us and others through our knowledge of His Word and personal experience. This is why He put us here, this is what we're here to learn and the major part of our training: How to make the right decisions through our personal contact with Him, our knowledge of His Word and His Will and our love for Him and others. We must do what we know is right and be willing to live and to die for what we know is the truth!
Be sure you're right and know you're right.––Then go ahead and do what you know is right and not because anyone has said it, but because you yourself are personally convinced it's God's Will, have established it in the mouth of many witnesses and confirmed it through many leadings, signs and other fruits and evidences. He likes you to seek it out and find it, so you yourself will know it's right when you do it without a doubt!
Think of your own children or family. Think how you love them and how you like to make them happy, as well as keep them safe and healthy, as long as they love you and delight themselves in obedience to your word, even giving them the choice of many things that are good for them.––And remember that God is like that with you! That's what He wants you to do and to have, to give you the desires of your heart, as long as you delight yourself in Him! But they must be the desires of your heart and not merely someone else's––Your choice and not only another's.
May God bless you and keep you and give you every desire of your heart as you delight yourself in Him and His Love and serving His children! We love you dearly and are praying earnestly for you, that you will know your choice is His Will.
The door is now open!––Walk in where you will, by your own free and loving choice!––It is His delight to give it to you! Fear not, little one, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom!