Have you ever had those friends that drag you places?

Years ago my friend asked me to attend a church meeting where a man was speaking. I went with her and enjoyed the service immensely. Years later I can still remember what he talked about.

At the end of the service he opened the altar for prayer. My friend practically dragged me up to the front of the church. When it was my turn, the man prayed for me, then looked directly into my eyes and said, “Choose life.”

Those words resonated with me. They stayed in my thoughts and in my heart for years after that.

At the time I was a new Christian so I didn’t know that “choose life” was actually in the Bible. Imagine my surprise when I read it for myself!

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Deuteronomy 30:19 (KJV).

I wondered for a long time what that actually meant, and I pondered it.

As I began to grow in my Christian walk I began to understand what “choose life” meant for me.

It meant looking up. It meant not looking at circumstances around me but looking up to God and clinging to him.

It meant speaking words of life. It meant not focusing on all the bad stuff, but focusing on God’s word instead, speaking it out and declaring it.

It meant reading my Bible, praying and growing daily.

It meant following the Lord in what He had for me, following where He was guiding me instead of following the world’s point of view. It meant laying down my own plans and following His.

It meant choosing the Lord’s way.

These things did not come overnight, but as a process.

The journey of following the Lord led me to Bible College at the age of 32. I graduated three years later. On one of the last days of class a fellow student prayed, “Because she has chosen you Jesus, her children know the salvation of the Lord…”

“..Therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deut 30:19 KJV).