🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship!🙌

Several years ago, I spent an afternoon with a pastor's wife who was far ahead of me in experience and wisdom. She casually shared, "I've decided I'm never going to eat candy again." It totally blew my mind, and I don't even like candy. I'd never heard someone, just another normal person like me, pre-decide for freedom like that. I don't think she was in bondage to M&M's, but this woman had goals for her future. She could taste and see that the smallest measure of freedom had a lot more to offer than the finest confection.

Making these "one and done" decisions is not new. Adam and Eve were invited to say, "I will never eat from that one tree," from the very beginning. I read one of David's decisions in Psalm 18 this week. It's the same one we're asked to make. David declares, "I WILL love you, O Lord, my strength." (Psalm 18:1 NKJV, emphasis mine)

David penned this psalm early in his life and sang it again at the end of his life.. his bookends (2 Samuel 22) I can't imagine David's declaration was an emotional whim, reacting to a single moment's victory. As one commentator contextualizes, he had already lost his safety, his youth, his family, his career, his rights, his connection with the people of God, and his comforts. Yet he remained steadfast.

David decided, "I WILL love the Lord... in my darkest hour, deepest pit, greatest triumphs, waiting days, when I feel seen, and when I don't."He willed himself to live a life of love in the Lord. This is also a decision against finding his comfort, safety or identity in someone or something else.

I wonder if that pre-decision saved David's life when he despaired it. (Read Psalm 13.) I wonder if it kept him humble and available to live the life God created him for. I wonder how pre-deciding to the Lord, our strength, could change our lives?

Listen to Anna Golden's "I Still Choose You".