Making wise choices will always start with our thoughts. Choosing life, Nicky Gumbel says, ‘starts with your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Each day, choose life-giving thoughts.’ (BIOY, 19^th April 2017) Jesus said, ‘out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.’ (Matt 15:19) Our thoughts determine our words and our actions, so wise choices are formed when we focus on good thoughts.

If we are not to conform to the pattern of the world, then our minds have to be renewed and transformed. (Rom 12:2) This happens as we think God’s thoughts, as we deliberately and consciously fix our thoughts on ‘whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy.’ (Phil 4:8) The acid test in making wise choices is what you allow your thoughts to dwell on.

If we focus on negative, destructive thoughts, allowing helplessness and defeatism to dominate our thoughts, we will give in to temptation and end up doing the things we despise. If we focus on God’s Word, we find resources to guide our thinking and actions and have the ability, through the power of God’s Spirit living within us, to choose God’s ways. Joshua 1:7 reminds us ‘be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.’ We have to keep to this script (no room for improvisation, picking and choosing what we will obey) in order to receive the material and spiritual blessings God promises for the obedient (see Deut 30:5, Deut 3:9-10, Josh 23:10, Eph 1:3).

Making wise choices involves 4 steps:

1. Dwelling on God’s character and nature so that we realise His commands are not burdensome but for our own good. (1 Jn 5:3)
2. Leaning on God in daily dependence, for it is God who is at work in us by His power (Phil 2:13)
3. Fixing our thoughts on good things and guarding our hearts (see Prov 4:23)
4. Doing whatever God tells us to do! (Jn 2:5, James 1:22)

Nowadays we are faced with choices wherever we go: deciding on the shades of paint to use to decorate our homes, deciding what kind of lettuce or tomatoes to go in our salads, choosing clothes and so on…!

Many of these choices are not especially important, but other choices (choosing where we live, what job we do, our choice of life partner, our choice to have children or not, for example) can be far more significant. Choices regarding spiritual matters are especially important (not only for our happiness now, but in determining our eternal destiny), and Paul warned the Corinthians to build with care on the one foundation, Jesus Christ (see 1 Cor 3:10-15).

Moses (Deut 29 & 30) and Joshua (Joshua 23) both warned the people of God of the need to take obedience seriously and to choose between life and death (Deut 29:15-16, 19-20, Josh 23:6-14). Yet despite the many warnings about the need for wisdom (see Prov 2:1-8, Prov 3:1-2, 13-18), we still often make choices that are far from wise. Like Paul, we don’t do the things we know we should or do things we know we shouldn’t (see Rom 7). Why do we find it so hard to make wise choices?

1. We Yield to the Old Nature

We can only make wise choices as we live in daily dependence on God, for our old nature will lead us away from God. We have sinful, unbelieving hearts (Heb 3:12) which persistently think we know better than God. The cost of discipleship is stark: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.’ (Matt 16:24-25) Only as we crucify the old nature with its passions and desires (Gal 5:24) and take seriously the need for discipline in our spiritual lives will we have the power to obey God and make wise choices.

     2. We live as though now is all there is.

Unless we develop a long-term perspective, we will either be lured by sin’s attractiveness or defeated by our present suffering. Only when we view life through the lens of eternity can we withstand the enemy’s temptations to believe it will always be like it is now and have the courage to change. Rom 8:18 and 2 Cor 4:17-18 remind us of the long-term perspective we need. New habits take time to be formed; we must be like Moses who ‘chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.‘ (Heb 11:25)

     3. We Have Unsurrendered Hearts

Surrender means yielding to God and accepting that He has the final say in our lives, that He is Lord over our lives and that that gives Him complete authority over us. Paul tells the Corinthians, ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price.’ (1 Cor 6:19-20) When we are fully convinced of the price God has paid for us, the price of the blood of Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, we are motivated by a desire to live our lives to please Him and not ourselves. Only when we are fully convinced of God’s goodness and that He has our best interests at heart (even in our present suffering) will we be able to surrender to Him and believe that His ways are the best.

Leaders from local churches are still meeting regularly and one thing we hope to see happen in 2017 is a joint ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting, to be held at different times and days in different churches. We believe it is important to join together in prayer and to pray for our churches and local communities as well as the wider world. 1 Tim 2:1 in the Message version says, ‘The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.” That gives us a lot of scope for prayer!

The first joint ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting will be on Wednesday 10th May at 10.30 a.m. at the Salvation Army on Straight Lane in Goldthorpe. We will try to hold these prayer meetings every other month and hope to hold them at different times and days to allow people who are working to attend.

Prayer is the powerhouse of the church, and we need to gather together to pray. If we want to see God’s kingdom come in our local area, we as Christians need to join together, demonstrating unity and faith. If you are free on 10th May at 10.30 a.m., please come and join with us. Who know what God will do as we seek His face?

Next Sunday (30th April) is the Thurnscoe Spring Show, a family fun event running from 12 noon until 4 p.m.

After the morning meeting, we will going to Thurnscoe East Post Office where there will be prayers for our local communities before processing down the main road to Houghton Road Centre (where Thurnscoe Pentecostal Church meets). At the centre, there will be children’s entertainment, traditional family fun (including maypole and dancers), the opportunity to play minigolf and also have a look at the new multi-gym facilities being unveiled at the sports ground on the other side of the road. Big Local Thurnscoe have great plans for the area over the next two years (including providing training opportunities for young people to learn practical skills), so do come along to find out more and be involved in our local communities! ‘Churches Together’ will be having a table at the centre to share what is going on in our churches, so please support this local event and enjoy an afternoon of family fun!

Bedline, the Compassion child we sponsor, is now seven years old and we have just received an updated photo of her (plus goats!)

In her latest letter, she tells us that her ambition is to be a nurse one day and that the country she would like to visit is the Dominican Republic. She thanks us for the gift we sent to her and tells us both she and her family are doing well.

Please continue to pray for Bedline, her family, her teachers and her pastor.

So often when we pray, we feel helpless, especially at those times when we are not even sure what to pray (see Rom 8:26) God’s Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to guide us in prayer: as Donald Whitney says, ‘can you have a greater assurance that you are praying the will of God than when you’re praying the Word of God?’

The Psalms anchor us in God’s revelation of Himself (Ps 103:8-18, Ps 9:16, Ps 11:7, Ps 24:8, 10) and teach us much about the need for persistence in prayer (see Luke 18:1-8). We are frequently urged by the psalmists to wait for the Lord (see Ps 27:14, Ps 130:5-6, Ps 5:3, Ps 33:20), something we tend to find hard to do! The Psalms help to remind us that God is at work, even in those times when His footprints are unseen (Ps 77:19). One commentator has said, ‘the Psalms are spiritual levees that control the flood of negative emotions and worry, guiding it along safe channels where it can be dissipated safely.’ (Ps 32:6-7, Ps 69:1) We can see in them the whole gamut of human emotion as the psalmists tackle subjects such as anger, injustice, frustration, fear, insecurity and hatred, along with confidence, joy, trust and faith, and as such they help us to pray honestly and authentically to a God who reigns over all the earth. (Ps 93:1, Ps 96:10)