OUR FIRST CHOICE - God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems - we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate. God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort. Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion. When we stay in close contact with God, we are less likely to create painful situations for ourselves. When life leads us into places of discomfort and struggle, God wants us to come to Him first, seeking His strength and guidance. For a length of twenty years the Israelites had been oppressed by the Canaanites ruler and his people. Yet not until Jabin, the king of Canaan, and Sisera, the commander of the army, prepared to slaughter the Israelites with an army of chariots did the Israelites cry out to the Lord for help. Why had these people lived in unbearable circumstances for so long without turning to God? Only when they knew they had no chance of survival against such a powerful force, did they finally turn to God. Why not before? God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems. Unlike the Israelites, we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate. God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort. The Israelites chose to go their own way and got into a mess. Yet we often do the same, don’t we? Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion.

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Our First Choice

When life leads us into places of discomfort and struggle, God wants us to come to Him first, seeking His strength and guidance

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God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems - we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate. God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort. Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion. When we stay in close contact with God, we are less likely to create painful situations for ourselves. 

listenandprosper.com

 

‘Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.’ - Judges 4:3 (NIV).

 

For a length of twenty years the Israelites had been oppressed by the Canaanites ruler and his people.

Yet not until Jabin, the king of Canaan, and Sisera, the commander of the army, prepared to slaughter the Israelites with an army of chariots did the Israelites cry out to the Lord for help.

Why had these people lived in unbearable circumstances for so long without turning to God?

Only when they knew they had no chance of survival against such a powerful force, did they finally turn to God. Why not before?

God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems.

Unlike the Israelites, we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate.

God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort.

The Israelites chose to go their own way and got into a mess. Yet we often do the same, don’t we?

God would have delivered His people earlier on, but ‘they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.’ (verse 1).

They refused to repent and turn to Him for help.

Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion.

However, when we stay in close contact with God, we are less likely to create painful situations for ourselves.

This is a lesson the Israelites never fully learned.

When life leads us into places of discomfort and struggle, God wants us to come to Him first, seeking His strength and guidance.

Prayer:

‘Heavenly Father, forgive me for looking elsewhere for the help and comfort that I am searching for just now.

Thank you that you wait for me to return to you. Keep me close to you Lord and help me in this time of need.’

In Jesus’ Mighty Name,

AMEN!

Final Thoughts:

God never left the Israelites, though they often wandered far from His presence.

God promises to stay close to us (Psalm 94:14).

But how often do our hearts stray from Him?

Rather than forsaking our first love (Revelation 2:4), let’s return to our Father and make Him our first choice whenever difficulties arise.

To what or whom do we turn to when we encounter hardship or painful situations?

Nothing or no one else can provide the comfort and help like God. Can we allow God to be all that He is in our lives at this time?

Let’s lay our situation and His feet and trust Him to do more than we could imagine or hope for.

Return to Him and He will turn to us.

Be Greatly Blessed!

https://listenandprosper.com/our-first-choice/

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WE WILL GO TO OUR OWN “PLACE” - God will force no one to descend downward to hell, because He is not willing that any should perish. Let’s remember that on that golden shore, there stands a loving Lord who delights in seeing men ascend in thought and in deed to forevermore dwell with him in a “place” He has prepared - we will ascend to our own “place” the Lord has prepared for us, only if we have been obedient to the will of the Father. Because of his transgression, the traitor Judas, “fell, that he might go to his own place.” There was no one to force him into it — he went to his own “place” of his own volition. If we capture a worm, a beaver, or a bird and let them all go at the same time, they will each go to his own sphere or “place” — the earth, the water, and the upper atmosphere. We do not need to force them in order for them to go to their own “place.” If we hold a stone and an inflated helium balloon in our hand, letting them go at the same time, one will descend, while the other will ascend. They will only rest when they find their true “place.” God will force no one to descend downward to hell, because He is not willing that any should perish. Thus, if we find ourselves descending downward to that “place,“ it will be as we have willingly built for ourselves while here on earth. On that golden shore, there stands a loving Lord who delights in seeing men ascend in thought and in deed to forevermore dwell with him in a “place” He has prepared.

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We Will Go To Our Own “Place”
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God will force no one to descend downward to hell, because He is not willing that any should perish. Let’s remember that on that golden shore, there stands a loving Lord who delights in seeing men ascend in thought and in deed to forevermore dwell with him in a “place” He has prepared - we will ascend to our own “place” the Lord has prepared for us, only if we  have been obedient to the will of the Father

By Mike Riley

 

The writer Luke records that because of his transgression, the traitor Judas, “fell, that he might go to his own place” (Acts 1:25).

There was no one to force him into it — he went to his own “place” of his own volition.

If we capture a worm, a beaver, or a bird and let them all go at the same time, they will each go to his own sphere or “place” — the earth, the water, and the upper atmosphere.

We do not need to force them in order for them to go to their own “place.”

If we hold a stone and an inflated helium balloon in our hand, letting them go at the same time, one will descend, while the other will ascend.

They will only rest when they find their true “place.”

Similarly, God will force no one to descend downward to hell, because He is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9).

Thus, if we find ourselves descending downward to that “place,“ it will be because that is the natural course for such a character as we have willingly built for ourselves while here on earth.

Let’s remember that on that golden shore, there stands a loving Lord who delights in seeing men ascend in thought and in deed to forevermore dwell with him in a “place” He has prepared (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 2 Corinthians 10:1-6; Colossians 3:16-17; Revelation 21:3; John 14:2).

On that great judgment day, we will ascend to our own “place” the Lord has prepared for us, only if we (through our own volition) have been obedient to the will of the Father (Matthew 7:21; Romans 2:13; James 1:22; 1 Peter 1:22; cf. Joshua 24:14-15).

Mike Riley, member of the Montana St. church of Christ, El Paso, Texas.

The Preacher’s Files went online in September of 2001 with a collection of links and a few sermon outlines and high hopes to be of great use to the Kingdom of God.  It has been growing since that time into a major resource for Bible teaching on the internet.  In 2010 645,387 unique visitors visited 1,133,239 times and read 6,601,537 pages.  I’m thankful to God for the opportunity to send His Gospel to the nations of the world.

This site has no ambitions to change the work and worship of the churches of Christ except where we have fallen away from the New Testament pattern.  I believe that the church that Jesus built is the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10) and not just another denomination.  If it were I would go find the true church.

I must also say that this site is not interested in the controversy of the day.  While we will not hesitate in speaking the truth or in calling names if there is a wolf among the sheep, our greater interest is in the slow and steady process of teaching.

https://gewatkins.net/we-will-go-to-our-own-place/