By Olubunmi Adebayo
*Yesterday, we learned that each of us is the architect of his own destiny.*
*We also said that apart from God, each of us is the most critical force in the success or failure of our journey of destiny.*
*This is possible through what we say, what we think, and what we do.*
*When God declared the statement below, he was alluding to the capacity of man to be a critical architect in his own affairs :*
*Genesis 1: [26] “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth”.*
*We can also see this by God’s warning to men on our engagement of the power of sovereignty, ie, our capacity to choose what we want :*
*Deut 30:[19] “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” :*
*The choice a man makes will determine if he would live or not.*
*Again, consider the following warning to all men :*
*Deut 28: [2] “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God”.*
*The above verse is calling on us to be diligent in listening to the directives of God, same for the scripture below :*
*Deut 28: [13] “And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them”.*
*We saw the power of choice played out in the lives of Samson, the prodigal son, the unprofitable servant, Judas, Reuben, Demas,etc. Let us now consider the following examples :*
*1) Solomon – the King of Compromise :*
*Solomon was much beloved by God. The throne that his big brothers – Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah, etc couldn’t attain, God gave it to him on a platter of gold. But what was the outcome? He lived a life of compromise and recklessness.*
*All the warnings of God and that of David his father to him, were all negated and relegated them :*
*“As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods.”(1Kg 11:4).*
*The wisest man ever, who built the temple, wrote the wisest collection of about 5,000 wisdom nuggets, but ended up marrying 700 wives, and 300 concubines! Who all led him away.*
*His kingdom couldn’t withstand the recklessness he left behind, leading to the splitting of his kingdom immediately after his death – because of what? The foolishness of a son not properly brought up.*
*2) Demas, the disciple of Paul who built his own ministry on the love of worldliness.*
*According to 2 Tim 4:10, Apostle Paul complained that “Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me.”*
*A man who was in ministry with Paul, but when pressures of the world came, he chose comfort and the world over the call of God and mission.*
*3) The Rich Young Ruler : he built his own choice and decision on attachment to wealth, over obedience and submission to God :*
*Mark 10:22 : “And this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”*
*This was a man Jesus offered eternal life and discipleship in his ministry. He walked away because he couldn’t let go of his worldly possessions. May be we would have been reading about his book today as read about the book of Jude, Titus or Timothy.*
*In all of the above, and many more, we saw a pattern of compromise, wrong values, disobedience, and pride.*
*All of the above affirm the content of Proverbs 14:12 : “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”*
*More than any other factors of consideration, our attitude, our disposition, our values and choices to a large extent, go a long way to determine if we will arrive at our destination in life or not.*
Top of the day to you. 👍
©️ Olubunmi S Adebayo.
