January 2009

Choices. We make many of them everyday. We choose to do one thing over another. Where we shop, what we buy, how we celebrate Christmas, what we give. To tell the truth or to lie. To protect or let go. To spend or save. We make decisions on what to eat, where to vacation, what to read, when to rise and when to go to bed. To attend church or to sleep in. To read the Bible more or to fill our lives with something else. Our lives are full of choices.

Some of our choices are better than others. Shortcuts that take much longer. Investments that can’t lose, but do. Fixers that become money pits. Extending the hand of friendship to one that abuses it. The list goes on and on.

OCC's theme verse and emphasis this year is all about choosing that which is best. At the very center of the Bible we find Psalm 118.8 "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man." The most important choice we will ever make involves who we will trust. Whether we put our trust in God or in ourselves or others. When I think of my own efforts to achieve my own expectations about myself, I realize I fall far short too often. When I think of others, they too at times will let me down. But God will never let us down. He invites us to put our trust in Him.
Trusting in God is the best choice we can make. In the weeks ahead, we will explore what it means to really trust God over every other option we have when it comes to trust.