04 Oct A Precious Choice!

It was a time when prayer cells in city colleges were growing rapidly. A guy hailing from a village joined a reputed college where friends met for Christian fellowship. As a believer in Christ, he was glad to have his prayer for fellowship answered. The vibrant Christian group in the college nurtured him to be like Christ.

He attended the prayer cells regularly and Christian youth camps too. He started reading the Bible in a way that gave him immense pleasure and drive to lead a meaningful life. The fellowships paved the way for a happy Christian living. He was exposed to a lot of Bible studies, real life witnesses that raised him as a God fearing person. Ps. 63:1 says O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Like King David, he used to seek God in the early morning. Even at night, he used to go to the hostel terrace speaking with God like a friend.

What a glorious and meaningful fellowship in Christ he enjoyed! Consequently, he had an incomparable blessed life during his college days. He also used to mentor his juniors in the fellowship and cry to God in concern for his lost neighbours.

He would say to himself “Let God alone be my heart’s desire, not the world”

He had a desire that as God called David, “A man after My own heart” he too would be called as a man after God’s own heart. Throughout the college days, he thought in his mind that he was strong and nobody could separate him from Christ. That desire was broken and robbed from him at one point of time in his life. After his graduation, he got a job in a company abroad. Before his arrival to that country, he had two prayer requests placed before God.

1. Wherever I am, I shall share about Christ.
2. Lord, I need a life partner who brings me closer to you.

He started working there and he could share about Christ and His sacrifice with a few friends. But he didn’t take many steps for evangelism as he now didn’t get much time even to read the Bible. Time went by, and he soon started to feel very dry in his Christian journey.

One day, he saw a beautiful photo of a young girl that caught his attention. He liked her profile, and soon started chatting with her. He liked her attitude very much and her openness made him to fall head over heels for her.

Initially, their chatting was like between two friends, later they became very close to each other. It moved on to conversing over phone as the intimacy deepened. They shared many of their personal experiences in life. They started loving each other. He used to eulogize her for her beauty and her attitude. For him, she was a care-taker. He desired her a lot and he longed to spend the rest of his life with her.

Slowly but surely, his love and longing for God was replaced by love for her. What a change over! Once he loved the verse Psalms 27:8 which says, “My heart says of you, Seek his face! Your face, Lord, I will seek.” But now, he forgot the face of God (God’s word).

One fine day, a minor obstruction to their love came in her life. She decided to break the relationship. He was helpless now. His heart was broken. It was very difficult for him to get away from her.

Because of his great love for her, he was not tired of convincing her, and kept pleading her for love. But nothing changed her decision of break-up.It was very difficult for him to digest this matter.

Everything became meaningless now!

He remembered how much he invested on her. His time, energy, emotions, dreams and so on. What a loss it was! After many long days of convincing

her, he wondered: was his decision to love her, a rightone?

Did he think about her spiritual life before proposing her?

Did he analyze her involvement in God’s Ministries?

Did he ask her stand about the Biblical Basis of Marriage?

Love blinded him and he forgot to think about all the vital criterias before getting into a relationship with her. How well the scheme of the devil played in his life! How precious is love! How dangerous it is to spend our lives in the desired things without God’s approval! He who was close with God early in his life, now, went far away. The wrong choices he made for love robbed away all of his passion for God. How many are the consequences he faced because of the wrong decisions! How it ruined his life! He realized his meaningless days and turned back to God asking for forgiveness.

He realized how it must hurt God when he broke the love for Him and chose to love her instead. The things he learnt way back in Christian fellowships at college and his old praying friends helped slowly reconstruct his life again. But, the scars in the heart caused out of breakup remain. Love looks beautiful. But choosing the right person matters a lot.

How badly a wrong decision in life ruins people!

Let our prayer always be, ‘Lord, help us to choose wisely and being sure of Your will.’

Debin David is an active EGF member in Chennai working for Thermax Limited.