The Root of our Decisions.

Talk is cheap.

This worldly concept aligns with the biblical truth that faith without works is dead.
This season has only reinforced both.

My brother Erik asked me, “What is the root of our decisions, and why do we choose to do what we do?” This thought echoed the convicting word my pastor preached two Sundays ago.

Pastor Caleb shared the story of the crowd that Jesus fed, performed miracles for, and healed. However, when Jesus pointed out that they were only following Him because He had fed them, not because they recognized the work of God in Him, all 5,000 of them left.

This word was convicting because I had been silently dealing with personal health issues, struggling to accept the reality that I might, in fact, be sick. I would go back and forth between choosing to stand on His promises and running to His presence for peace, when my own logic and reason stood strongly against them. I had been praying for God to preserve my faith, but I couldn’t help but question it.

Am I only with Him because He’s fed me? And I mean given me the bread of life. Or because He’s performed miracles in my life? Because He can change, preserve, or remove anything I’m up against? Because He can choose to heal me?

Am I only here for what He can do? As I sat through that sermon, holding back tears, I heard the Holy Spirit ask me the same question Jesus asked His 12 disciples after the crowd left Him…

“Are you going to leave me too?”

My inner man answered, in all sincerity, the same way Peter did: “Lord, where else can I go? I know who you are.”

It was at that moment that I now had reassurance on why I made the decision to keep following Him, it wasn’t for what He can do, but because of who He is despite it.

So, the answer to my brother’s question (at least for me) is that the foundation of my decisions rests on two things: how much I believe in who He is and my acceptance of His will, not only for my life, but for His Church as a whole.

It’s true what they say: talk is cheap, and faith without works is dead. What God has taught me in this season is that sometimes the “works” of faith are not about my actions, but about my steadfast choice to remain on the course He has laid out for me, regardless of the obstacles.