Real Hope: Seeking TruthSample

## You Choose Sometimes I feel stuck in life. I feel like nothing I do can make any difference. Or any decision-makingthat is out of my control. Sometimes, I’ve heard people talk about following Jesus being like that, too. Like being a Christian turns you into a puppet – with someone else pulling the strings. In some ways, this is true. God is ultimately in control. However, there’s a gaping hole in this narrative. Because alongside God’s great concern with the details of our lives, He also creates us to be thinking, choosing, changing people. We choose to follow Jesus. We choose not to follow Jesus. And in every moment of our lives, we still get to make choices. Recently I was thinking about my personal Bible reading and realised that every time I don’t read my Bible, it’s not that I don’t have time or don’t have a Bible, but rather that I’m choosing to do something else. I’m choosing not to. God has made me free to choose. He has given me the wisdom to make good decisions. He has given me His Spirit to guide me. He has given me everything I need to follow Him. He has given me forgiveness for when I choose the wrong thing. But at this moment, I want to choose Him. And live fully aware that this gift of choice can be used to draw me closer to His truth, closer to true discipleship, or to turn my back on it. This is true. #### Written by KATIE SMITH