Mental Belief or Personal Intimacy

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus said,
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself."    ~ Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)

Pondering thoughts and choices that we all have...

                          ALL of our decisions that we make today affect tomorrow...

Being busy? OR Being purposeful?...
Short-term pleasures? OR Long-term differences?
Social media? OR Real life experiences?
Surface relationships? OR Really caring and loving?
Pleasing me? OR Pleasing others?
Hundreds of Facebook friends? OR Genuine friends to listen and care?
Instant gratification? OR Lifelong fulfillment?
"Freedom" of non-commitment? OR The ULTIMATE FREEDOM of commitment?
Receiving love? OR Giving love?

Whether we all ponder these thoughts is an unanswered question...

               What we CHOOSE is a deliberate decision that we make whether we THINK about it or not...

Our amazing God created the human mind so intricately complex...no one can understand it! It is powerfully at work! As significant questions arise in our thoughts, it serves us well to ponder these thoughts and to take action. It is convicting to understand that taking "no action" is really a conscious choice that is in practice life-directing, life-changing action. In response to some very thought-provoking reflection, there was a time in my life that I realized that I KNEW that I KNEW that I KNEW--but, I didn't really KNOW! This moment IS life-changing...coming to an overwhelming passage in our circumstances where our "program" of belief is changed forever into "personal" belief. To believe is to commit not in terms of the world's definition of commitment but abandoning all that is not related to personally believing. In personal belief, the greatest choice we can make is to walk with Jesus Christ and make Him Lord of our lives. It is a conscious choice to accept the free gift of salvation and to choose to grow in personal intimacy with Him.

Oswald Chambers writes in My Utmost for His Highest, "I find that faith is as natural as breathing, and I'm staggered that I was so stupid as not to trust Him before." 

We all have choices to make in life and one of those choices is to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and to walk and grow with Him. The world is enticing and seductive, and not to make a decision is to not choose JESUS and eternity with Him!


Jesus?     OR     False beliefs and illusions and ultimately death?


"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."     ~Philippians 4:8  

Copyright 2013 Dr. Donna Earl Bridges