{"id":10226,"date":"2025-11-12T12:07:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T12:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=10226"},"modified":"2025-11-12T12:07:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T12:07:28","slug":"dont-limp-decide-november-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=10226","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Limp! Decide! (November 11)"},"content":{"rendered":"


Download MP3 Audio Track<\/strong> . . . or listen on SoundCloud<\/strong>, YouTube<\/strong>, or Spotify<\/strong><\/p>\n

“And Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’ And the people did not answer him a word” (1 Kings 18:21).<\/p>\n

ELIJAH DID NOT PULL ANY PUNCHES. Challenging the people to choose between the worship of God and the worship of Baal, he mocked their wishy-washy attitude: \u201cHow long will you go limping between two different opinions?\u201d Or as the ERV so colorfully paraphrases it: \u201cYou must decide what you are going to do. How long will you keep jumping from one side to the other?\u201d<\/p>\n

In this book, we\u2019ve been discussing the importance of obeying the gospel of Christ \u2014 both the \u201chow\u201d and the \u201cwhy\u201d of that obedience. I hope I\u2019ve made it clear that the commitment to follow Christ is not one to be entered into lightly. The question of whether the gospel is true is extremely \u2014 indeed, eternally<\/em> \u2014 important and should be considered carefully. But sooner or later, a decision has to be made. If you\u2019ve seen that the gospel is true, and you know what the New Testament teaches about how to obey it, the question is unavoidable: What do you choose to do?<\/em> You can\u2019t waver between obeying<\/em> the gospel and rejecting<\/em> it any more than Israel could waver between God and Baal. You must decide.<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re faced with momentous decisions, we sometimes think we have decided when, in reality, we have not. Often, we think we\u2019ve decided when all we\u2019ve done is congratulate ourselves on knowing what we should<\/em> do, thinking, \u201cI\u2019ll do it as soon as a good opportunity presents itself.\u201d In an age that worships feelings (substituting feelings for thinking and even for action), we suppose that we\u2019ve made a choice simply because we feel a certain way. But ponder this statement by Eric Greitens, with which I agree: \u201cRemember that deciding is not doing, and wanting is not choosing. Transformation will take place not because of what you decide you want, but because of what you choose to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said, \u201cIt is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them.\u201d The weak vacillate and procrastinate. But the people of strong character decide. And they know that backing away is always the wrong<\/em> decision.<\/p>\n

“Not to decide is to decide” (Harvey Cox).<\/p>\n

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download MP3 Audio Track . . . or listen on SoundCloud, YouTube, or Spotify “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’ And the people did not answer him a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1971,384,1989,126],"class_list":["post-10226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-decide","tag-dont","tag-limp","tag-november"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}