A Woman’s Right to Choose

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Alabaster Jar, Anger, Choices, Choose, Decisions, Responsibility, women

Happy International Women’s Day!

One of the mantra’s women live by is there right to choose. It is a God given right and no one can take it from her. She can choose what she does with her body, she can choose how she treats her husband and children, she can choose how she spends her money. It’s her choice. No one can tell her what to do. Yes, this is true, as a woman, you have a choice and this choice was given to you by God Himself. He is not afraid of your choices, for He is the one that gave you the power to choose. He put two trees in the garden and said pick one, it is your choice (Genesis 3). Eve made her decision, she chose the tree of good and evil wanting to be like God rather than choosing the tree of life and trusting God. It was her choice and she chose. No one is trying to take away your ability to choose, they can’t because God gave you the right of choice. But what if they were not trying to take away your ability to choose but were trying to reveal to you the consequences of your choice?

Every human being gets to make their own choices, but with choice comes responsibility and with responsibility comes the need for wisdom because not every choice will produce the results that is says it will on the label. You can choose to have sex outside of marriage, but there are consequences; you can choose to neglect your children, but there are consequences; you can choose to pursue money, but there are consequences. The choices are endless, but the pain we face is not because we made the right choice, but because we or someone else made the wrong choice. Whenever we choose our selfish desires, the results will always produce pain, not immediately usually, but eventually.

Pain that is the result of our choices or someone else’s choices leave women with yet another choice. Women have the right to choose to be angry or break the alabaster jar. Whatever we choose will have consequences, but I will tell you upfront I have chosen both and one produces life and the other produces death. Paul said, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and tender-hearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.…” (Ephesians 4:30-32). When I struggled with being angry, I did not recognize it in myself, my husband said to me one day, honey, you are very angry. I exploded, what do you mean I am angry, I am not angry. But his words pierced my heart and I sought the Lord and this is what He told me, get rid of anger. I said, Lord, how do I get rid of anger, He said, just tell it to go. So, I exercised my authority and told anger to get out. I know it sounds simple, but the kingdom is not complicated.

Once anger was gone, I had another choice to make, was I going to go back to anger or grab an alabaster jar. In Matthew 26:6-7 we meet a woman who, “While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, which she poured on His head as He reclined at the table.” The alabaster jar was broke open and poured out upon Jesus, the smell would have filled the room. I know it was a literal bottle of perfume, but I believe metaphorically it was this woman’s broken heart being poured out on the Lord. You see, anger is a cover up for pain, so people don’t get close enough to you again and hurt you. I know, remember I was angry, but what the Lord showed me is that I was really hurting and didn’t want anyone to know.

When we choose to pour out our heart to the Lord, it is like sweet perfume that fills the throne room. The Bible says, David was a man after God’s own heart and if you read the Psalm’s I believe it is because he was brutally honest with God about his pain. Ladies, we have a right to choose, we can choose to be angry or we can choose to pour out our alabaster jar of perfume. One is going to keep people away from us and one is going to draw the presence of God to us so we can be healed. Your pain becomes perfume in the throne room of God when you pour it out on Jesus, rather than lashing it out on others. You have a right to choose, God says, in Deuteronomy 30:15, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction”. It’s a woman’s right to choose, what choice will you make, anger or alabaster? I choose life and prosperity, I hope you do as well. Happy International Women’s Day!

Decision (D) – Day

Tags

Choices, Compromise, contradictions, Decisions, Evangelism, maturity, Options

Joel 3:14 “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” (NIV)

Joshua 24:15 “If serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” (NIV)

I Kings 18:21 “Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you ^[a]hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word.” (NIV)

Romans 5:16 “Don’t you realize that grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully, for you surrender yourself to become a servant – bound to the one you chose to obey.” (Passion Translation)

From Genesis to Revelation the bible is riddled with the call to make a decision, to choose, and as much as we as people would rather not choose, we have to make a choice, for the days of living in the indecision are fast ending. When I lived in Malaysia, I realized how American I was when I went to the grocery store and the choices were so limited, there were only 10 cereal choices, rather than the 50 I had in the US. But when I got back from living in Malaysia for 9 years, I realized how Malaysian I had become, because I was overwhelmed by all the choices here in the US. The more choices you have, the more freedom you think you are given, but actually the opposite is true, the less choices you have, the easier it is to decide. Once you decide on one thing, that is where real freedom is found.

It is not freedom to be sleeping around with multiple people, that is bondage, real freedom is being married and living monogamously with one person. It is not freedom to be jumping from job to job because you get offended when you are corrected, real freedom is staying the course, running the race and learning how to live with your cubicle companions over the years. We have bought into the lie that freedom is not choosing, actually, freedom doesn’t come until you make a choice. Anxiety and stress riddle people who are trying to find a house to buy, but peace comes when they finally make a decision. Freedom comes from making your choice, not from leaving your options open out of fear of making the wrong choice.

So, if freedom comes from making a decision, why are we so afraid of making a decision; why does the thought of D-Day rattle us so much? The most popular answer to this question is fear, fear of making the wrong decision. The funny thing about fear is, it keeps you from making a decision, but is nowhere to be found once the decision is made. The Christian challenge is that we have said a prayer but we never made a decision to follow a man. We got baptized in water but we never died to ourselves. We accepted Christ but we never said no to sin. So, we have altered our beliefs to match our experience, which is why you can be a Christian and still have sin as your master; you can live for yourself and still expect to be blessed; you can say whatever you want and not reap what you have sown.

The reason most people do not pick a path is because the gate that leads to life is called death; the path that leads to perfect love is called pain. Most people want relief from their distress, but they do not want to be made whole. We see, feel, experience the consequences of indecision, but yet we do not have the strength to make a different decision. We have become so comfortable with the bondage of indecision, when we meet someone who has made a decision, we get mad at them for they refuse to conform to our discomfort. Jesus didn’t die so you could be comfortable in your contradictions, He died so you could be free from sin. The Lord will never violate your free will, the choice has been and continues to be yours. Decision day is every day and what you decide is up to you, but I want to end by quoting Deuteronomy 30:19, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (NLT)