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CHOICES
“A man reaps what he sows.”
Antonio said that one day his coach told him something that changed his life. There were two All-Americans on the team, and Antonio's coach asked him why he never CHOSE to spend time with or train with them. Antonio said that those two guys were different from the rest of the team. They CHOSE to train differently, they CHOSE to eat differently, and they CHOSE to study differently. To hang out with them meant that he had to make a CHOICE to live differently and make different CHOICES.
In Galatians 6, the Bible says that a man reaps what he sows. If we make good CHOICES, good things happen. Every CHOICE that we make either gets us closer to our goals or farther from our goals.
In Luke chapter 5, Jesus saw two boats sitting in a lake, got in one of them, and He began teaching people from the boat. When He was done teaching, Jesus asked his disciple Simon to put their fishing nets out deeper into the lake to catch fish. Simon said that they had been fishing all night and they hadn't caught anything. But because of Jesus and His leadership, Simon did what he was told.
Even though they were tired and frustrated, they made the CHOICE to listen to and follow Jesus, and when they put the nets deeper into the lake, they caught so much fish that their nets began to break.
Being great is hard. It takes trust in your coaches and leaders, and it takes you going deeper and digging deeper. It takes you making the CHOICE to commit more to your goals, your dreams, and your work ethic. Being great and getting closer to Jesus requires you to make the CHOICE to do what you need to do, even when (and especially when) it is not what you feel like doing.
Every time that you make the CHOICE do what's right when you don't feel like it, you are growing. Making the right CHOICE isn't always easy, but if we want to be the best we can be, then we have to be able to go deeper than what we want, think and feel. We have to CHOOSE to do what we KNOW is right.
I don't always feel like CHOOSING to show up early and getting pre-practice work in. I don't always feel like CHOOSING to run around the block for conditioning on the weekend. I don't always feel like CHOOSING to stretch at night, or CHOOSING to drink more water, or CHOOSING to go above and beyond. But I know that making the right CHOICES is important, so I make the right and decision to do so even when (and especially when) I don’t feel like it.
Life is all about CHOICES. We can CHOOSE to do what we feel like doing, regardless if it makes us better, or we can CHOOSE to go deeper than our feelings and do what we need to do to get us closer to our goals.
Jesus's disciples had been fishing all night. They were tired and frustrated. But when He told them to go further and go deeper, they did. Because they did, they caught more fish than they could handle. Jesus then told them to not be afraid and that they will fish for people. They made the CHOICE to follow Him.
What CHOICES are you going to make this week?
This Week
1 - Celebrate the good choices that we make. What is one area of your life where you feel like you make good choices?
2 - What is one area of your life where you feel like you can make better choices?
3 - What is one thing that you are going to do differently this week?
4 - Who is one person in your life that you admire? How can you spend more time with that person and learn more about that person?
Extra Reading: 4 - Read Luke 5:1-11 to see how Jesus called on His first disciples and asked them to make the CHOICE to go further and deeper despite the frustrations that they were already having.
5 - Read Galatians 6:1-10 to read how we reap what we sow and how we all have the opportunity to do good to all people.
For a Google doc version of this, click here: Week 5 Devotional | Choices
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