The Choice of Faith

The Choices of Faith

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”

Hebrews 11:23–26

The course of our lives is determined by the choices we make. It is not our wishes, our intentions, or our resolutions that shape our destiny, but the actions we choose when confronted by decision points in life. There are not a few miraculously blessed people who coast through life without any problems, never having to make a hard choice. Everyone comes to points where they must turn left or turn right—and what we do in those moments determines where we will end up in life.

Moses would not have lived to adulthood without the choice of his parents to hide him from Pharaoh’s evil decree that all the Hebrew baby boys be murdered. And Moses would not have been chosen by God to lead Israel out of bondage in Egypt had he not chosen to turn his back on the pleasures offered a young man in the palace of the king and stand with God’s people instead.

The thing about difficult choices is that we do not know how they will turn out, even if we choose what is right to the best of our knowledge. Sometimes there is great earthly reward for obedience to God. But sometimes the reward of faith is only seen later. But the correctness of our decision is not determined based on earthly outcome. It is determined by whether we act in obedience and faith.

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Faith chooses to believe that what God has said is true and to act upon it with confidence.