Lifestyle Choice

O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you. 1 Chronicles 29:18

I have a life problem. My problem is that I don’t naturally tend to eat healthy and exercise. Rather, it is my nature to eat junk food and sit on the couch, watching TV. Likewise, I don’t naturally live for the good of others, loving my neighbor as myself. Rather, I naturally live for myself. The bottom line is that it isn’t my nature to live as God intends, seeking his will for my life. Instead, it is most natural for me to get up every day and do what I want. The problem with all this of course, is that my way isn’t healthy. It may be natural, but it leads me to misery and disaster. So, if I want my life to not be miserable and not be a disaster, then I must choose to point my life at God instead of myself.

This was David’s prayer for himself and his people, as recorded in today’s passage. In the narrative, David prayed before an assembly of the people at the commissioning of the temple’s construction. Knowing his people’s propensity to wander from God, David prayed that God would direct his people’s hearts toward himself. David desired that his people’s hearts would be continually pointed at God, so that they would not self-destruct, but rather, that they would prosper.

This is what I desire for myself. My way is disaster. God’s way is life. So, I must choose to point my life at God. This, however, isn’t a once-and-done decision that I made a decade ago. Because it is my nature to continually follow me, this is a decision that I must remake daily, sometimes a hundred times a day. Following God is a lifestyle that I must purposefully and continually choose, or I just naturally embrace a lifestyle of following me. So, today, if I desire the life God intends for me, I must choose to follow him. Tomorrow, I must do the same. This is the life I want.