By Kelly Byrley
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11
Have you ever read those books that allow you to choose your own adventure or choose your own ending? I can remember reading them when I was a little girl. They were so much fun! If you are not familiar with these types of books, let me explain the basic idea. You would come to a point in the book where it would give you two options of which pages to turn to in order to continue the story. Some books would give little clues about what could happen if you turned to one page or the other and some books would not. You would make your choice, and then you would come to another point in the book where you would be given another set of page numbers.
This would continue a few more times depending on the book until you reached the end. I always loved to go back and re-read the same book and choose different options every time. I would get a different story and a different ending every time. Depending on the book, there could be dozens of different stories and outcomes. Sometimes the pages I chose led me to fun and exciting adventures and sometimes they led to bad or disappointing ones. If I ended up with a choice that led to disappointment, I would just re-read the book and choose another page number when I got to the place that had led me down a not-so-great path.
This is great for fictional reading, but not for real-life living. In real life, there are consequences to taking the wrong path.
There are no do-overs! Our choices in real life matter. They affect us and those around us. They affect those who are watching and following us. They affect the lost. They affect our ministries and our church. They affect eternity!
When the Lord is writing our story, there are many times where we will come to the pages of our life that have options. But unlike those books, the Lord makes it crystal clear which options have good outcomes and which do not. There is no guessing on which one we should choose and what will happen if we choose the wrong one.
His Word very clearly lays this out in Deuteronomy 28. Verses 1-2 shows God’s blessings for those that turn to the right pages. It says, “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.”
In contrast, verse 15 is a warning to those who are about to turn to the wrong page. It says, “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee…” Verse 45 is even more of a warning. It mentions that the cursings will not just overtake us, but they will pursue us and destroy us.
We will be overtaken either way, but whether it is being overtaken by blessings or cursings is solely determined by which pages we turn to in our life’s book.
There are countless times the Lord tells us in the Bible what will happen when we do right and what will happen when we do wrong. He has an expected end for us, but that does not mean we cannot change that into something that is not His expected end for us. Our choices determine our end. Every time we come to a page in our life where we have to make a choice, we are choosing our end. These pages can be daily pages, weekly pages, monthly pages, and so on, but each and every one matters.
Each and every page has the potential to change our story and our ending.
If you have been turning to the right pages so far in your life’s story, I implore you to continue! The Lord’s expected end is always the best ending possible! An expected end means there is an expected path. His path for our lives is always the absolute best with the greatest amount of favor, blessings, and protection!
Living right is ALWAYS worth it!
Please look around at the people you know who had a great life story, but then turned to the wrong page one day. Their lives are probably a mess or on their way there. I cannot tell you how many people I know that are facing a far worse ending than they ever dreamed. If that is you and you have been turning to the wrong pages, do not lose hope! It is never too late to make the right choice today.
You may still have scars, pain, and baggage from all the wrong choices you have made, but the Lord will forgive you, and He will bless your obedience moving forward.
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