Today you have three choices. No matter how many things you do, or how many things you think, or how many feelings you may have, at ever juncture you will ultimately have to make one of three choices. Do you know what they are? They are: SERVE GOD, SERVE SATAN, OR SERVE SELF. There are no other choices. Three curtains – one prize.
Now some people would say that if you serve self then that is the same thing as serving Satan. But that is not true. To serve self at a given moment of time CAN indeed be a surrendering to Satan, but may also not be. It is, however, certainly true to say that if you are serving yourself then at that moment you are NOT serving God; and perhaps, that is a less than proper way to spend your time, but that is not necessarily doing evil or being evil. Satan tempts self, but self is not Satan.
The real challenge comes not in placing a value on what we are doing, but rather in determining our destiny by not making the wrong decision when there is a clear reason to chose. If God is tugging at your heart, AND the devil is tugging at the same time, THEN to not chose the God-direction would be wrong. If the Devil is tempting you to do something, and you for your own personal reasons (‘self’ in action) decide not to do them then you have chosen self over Satan. And that is a very good thing because God is not only watching to see what you are doing merely for Him, but also personally against His adversary. Self in adversity against Adversary IS advisable!
The nice thing about have a WILL is that what ever you CHOSE is an action of YOU! Many Christians, counselors, and clerics do not realize that SELF is good when it chooses to do GOOD, as well as, when it chooses to NOT DO evil. Both actions are actually selfishly motivated. We chose to not do evil, because it is harmful to us; both in this life and in the next life. We chose to do good, because it is beneficial to us; again, both in this life and the next life. We may SAY that we are doing it ‘for God’ but that is not quite true because it implies that we are ‘not doing it for ourselves’ at all. It’s always about us!
God did not merely say, DO AS I TELL YOU OR I WILL KILL YOU! What He said was: CHOSE LIFE! God wants us (the real us, the ‘me’ inside, the inner man, the ‘will’, the soul) to LOVE truth, good, right, spirit, Him; but He has not bound us to it. He has made Himself vulnerable to be rejected or accepted at OUR CHOICE. And likewise He has decided to ‘stand by’ and watch to see which master we will serve. God offers BLESSINGS to entice us to serve Him! What lasting blessings has Satan or Self
Original Copyright: © Anthony J. Massotti Th.M., Th.M. 4/30/2000