The God who gives Choices

Two things happened some days ago that inspired this note. I read that Meriam Ibrahim had been freed from prison and her death sentence overturned. If you don’t know her, she is the pregnant Sudanese lady who was sentenced to death for apostasy (converting from Islam to Christianity).

The second one was receiving a pamphlet from the Yes Together Scottish campaign group. The group took time to put some very convincing reasons why Scotland is better being inside the UK than as an independent country. And then they asked people to make an informed choice in the referendum; not out of fear, or out of some nationalistic pride, but based on facts.

In many ways, this ability of people to choose is what makes Christianity so appealing. Unlike other religions that thrive on fear and force, Christianity offers freedom of choice.


The God who made us and knows what is best for us loves us too much to demand that we serve Him by force. He respects our self–will. Like every parent, He knows what lies ahead and gives us guidelines to follow for our good. But if we decide not to follow them, He lets us be.

Jesus Himself says in Luke 10:27, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” It’s amazing that He includes mind, and it’s because He wants us to think, to reason and then come to the realization that He is worthy of love and worship. He doesn’t want us to become robots, who serve Him because we have been programmed to do so.

As people don’t we appreciate it when others love us or show kindness to us because they want to? How many of us love hypocrites or people who love us because they feel they have no other choice or will get into trouble otherwise? Exactly, none. Why would a loving God who is more perfect than us, compel us to love Him or accept forced conversions?

This is not only to non-Christians, but to Christians as well. We have to know why we serve God. And I think it should be in appreciation of His love for us, not because our parents said so. I hope we can find out the truth of who God is and what He has done for us, so that we will love Him in appreciation with our hearts, our souls, our strength and especially our minds.

For me I chose to love Him because I found out over the years, that He is a true friend who loves me with the protective love of a father and the nurturing love of a mother. Why do you love Him?

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