By Mike Chaffin
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
I like the Mounds and Almond Joy commercial jingle, “Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.” We have the power to choose because we have free will.
However, free will is a double-edged sword and the church has debated this topic for centuries. The Bible teaches it is a gift from God. He created us with the ability to choose. We choose daily what to wear, eat, and what to do.
The deeper choices in life involve our relationship with Christ and eternity itself. We choose to pray, or not. We choose to grow close to Christ or live a like a heathen. I believe we choose to accept the warnings of the Holy Spirit and through faith open the door to accept Christ as our Savior,
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:20
It is evident we have a choice to let Jesus in our hearts. To further this teaching by Jesus a frequently quoted line from the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley is,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
He wrote this while in the hospital battling a leg infection caused by complications with Tuberculosis. He was not a believer, but had read Matthew where Jesus said,
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14
To get the context here is the entire poem.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
It is a very sad poem when you realize this man knew his decision to not accept Jesus would end in his eternal damnation. When we give our life to Jesus and make Him captain of our soul, the path is straight, the burden gets light, and the joy of the Lord will fill us with the knowledge we are a child of God with a future home in Heaven.
For additional reading about free will check out these verses.
Galatians 5:13, 2 Peter 3:9 John 7:17, Mark 8:34, Romans 6:23, Galatians 5:16-17, Deuteronomy 30:19, Ezekiel 18:32
