Keep choosing God

We are constantly facing choices.

The question is whether we choose for God or for our own doubting self.

We know what the right choice is, but our emotions, passions, and feelings keep suggesting us choose the self-rejecting way.

The root choce is to trust at all times that God is with us and will give us what we most need.

Our self-rejecting emotions might say, " It isn't going to work. I'm stilll suffering the same anguish I did six months ago. I will probably fall back into the old depressive patterns of acting and reacting. I haven't really changed." And on and on.

It is hard not to listen to these voices. Still, we know that these are not God's voice.

God says to us, " I love you, I am with you, I want to see you come closer to me and experience the joy and peace of my presence. I want to give you a new heart and a new spirit. I want you to speak with my words, see with my sight, hear with my ears, touch with my hands. All that is mine is yours. Just trust me and let me be your God."

This is the voice to listen to. And that listening requires a real choice, not just once in a while but every moment of each day and night.

It is us who decides what we think, say, and do. We can think ourselves into a depression, we can talk ourselves into low self-esteem, we can act in a self-rejecting way. But we always have a choice to thing, speak, and act in the name of God and so move toward the Light, the Truth, and the Life.

As we conclude this period of spiritual renewal, we are faced once again with a choice. We can choose to remember this time as a failed attempt to be completely reborn, or we can also choose to remember it is the precious time when God began new things in us that need to be brought to completion.

Our future depends on how we decide to remember our past. Choose for the truth of what we know. Do not let our still anxious emotions distract us. As we keep choosing God, our emotions will gradually give up their rebellion and be converted to the truth in us.

We are facing a real spiritual battle. But do not be afraid. We are not alone. Those who have guided us during this period are not leaving us. Their paryers and support will be with us wherever we go. Keep them close to our hearts so that they can guide us as we make our choices.

Remember, we are held safe. We are loved. We are protected. We are in communion with God and with those whom God has sent us. What is of God will last. It belongs to the eternal life. Choose it and it will be yours.