Choices And Boundary Lines
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles, uncategorized
The story is told of a young mother who was trying to get her 2-year-old son to make a choice. “You can have fish or chicken,” she told him. She limited him to just two choices because he was too young to understand any further choices.
As mature Christians, the freedom of choice allows us not only a wider variety of choices, but it also allows us to reject the choices that are not good for us.
Adam and Eve were provided the best environment one could possibly imagine. God had given them freedom to eat of all the trees in Eden with the exception of one tree being off-bounds. Their choice should have not been difficult. But because of the evil influence of the serpent, their choice went awry, and they suffered the consequences of it (Genesis 3:16-19).
Today, many folks blame God for what they see as His restrictions. They may even accuse Him of trying to control their lives. But God gives us a choice, just as He did Adam and Eve.
God draws boundary lines (Exodus 19:10-13,20-25; Job 14:1-5; Jeremiah 5:22; Acts 17:26), but they are for our protection and benefit.
David understood this when he wrote:
“You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies …. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your Word” (Psalm 119:98-101).
God cares so much about us that He gives us boundary lines so that we will choose what is right — benefiting from that choice (Deuteronomy 6:24-25; Deuteronomy 7:6-15),