Week Twenty-One, 2018

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls (Jeremiah 6:16).

Taking our little daughter to the ice cream store for a treat was always a challenge. She never could decide which flavor she liked and ask for a sample spoon of each. Once she had sampled all, she would say that she had eaten all the ice cream she wanted.

Life is full of choices especially in this fast paced world where we are all stressed up and don’t know which way to go. There are choices, often conflicting. In this life, we have to make many choices. Some are very important choices. Some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices.

Choices

The best way to make choices is to not make significant ones alone. “For by wise guidance you will wage war, And in abundance of counselors there is victory.” (Proverbs 24:6) “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” (Proverbs 11:14)

But there is even a better way. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

Be anxious for nothing stands in contrast to worrying which reveal a lack of trust in God’s sovereignty and power. As believers, we need to realize that our confidence in life does not come from ourselves but from the All Powerful God of the universe. That is why Paul tells us not to worry about anything. If we worry we are basically saying that God cannot handle it. By contrast we are to take everything to God in prayer and His peace will guard our hearts and minds. Believers, who stand firm in Christ, respond to trials and endure hardship with thankful prayer. Here are some prayers to pray for choices in our lives.

• Choices allow us to love or not… help us choose love.

• Choices allow us to choose right or wrong… help us choose right.

• Choices allow us to choose the light or the dark…. help us choose light.

• Choices allow us to choose between good and bad… help us choose good.

• Choices allow to choose between good and best… help us choose best.

• Choices allow us to choose you… help us draw near to you.

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

A kid in Minnesota wrote the following NEW School Prayer:

Now I sit me down in school

Where praying is against the rule

For this great nation under God

Finds mention of Him very odd

If scripture now the class recites,

It violates the Bill of Rights.

And anytime my head I bow

Becomes a Federal matter now

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,

That’s no offense; it’s a freedom scene.

The law is specific, the law is precise.

Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice

For praying in a public hall

Might offend someone with no faith at all.

In silence alone we must meditate,

God’s name is prohibited by the State.

We’re allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,

And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.

They’ve outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.

To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,

And the ‘unwed daddy,’ our Senior King.

It’s ‘inappropriate’ to teach right from wrong.

We’re taught that such ‘judgments’ do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,

Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.

But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,

No word of God must reach this crowd.

It’s scary here I must confess,

When chaos reigns the school’s a mess.

So, Lord, this silent plea I make:

Should I be shot; My soul please take!

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

Christianity is a fact-based religion. John 20:27

You can’t convince people of things they don’t want to be convinced of. Regret is a terrible feeling. Sometimes, when you think it’s too late, it’s not. Until it is. KC Newbill

Pain can be used for good. It causes us to pause and ponder what’s really important. Mark Merrill

Jesus is Lord. And that changes everything.

C. S. Lewis wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” Focus on those you serve and witness the new found value.

In what appears to be his last tweet, on Dec. 1, Sproul wrote about his belief in eternity: “When God writes our names in the ‘Lamb’s Book of Life,’ he doesn’t do it with an eraser handy. He does it for eternity.”

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©2018 John Grant | Florida State Senator (Ret.) | 10025 Orange Grove Drive | Tampa, FL 33618