There's Always Going To Be A Price To Pay

No matter what kind of life you life, there is always going to be a price to pay. This is a true statement, but the price that is paid doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Since the beginning of time people have used their God given free will to determine the path they were going to take...the choices they were going to make. And throughout history people have paid the price for those choices. Sometimes the price paid was for a good cause, and sometimes it wasn't. If you think as far back as Adam and Eve, they had a choice, and prices were paid. When they did as God asked the price was that they did not eat from the tree of knowledge, therefore they did not know the difference between good and evil. That may not sound like a price, but it really was. They were living "without" something on purpose to obey and honor God. And then when they decided to take from the tree and eat the fruit, then the price that was paid was having a knowledge they have never experienced before, a shame they had never felt before and a distance between them and God that never existed before. I heard my pastor say last week that this is how good God is....Even though God already knew they had sinned, He still kept His appointment with them in the garden, He showed up, but it was them who hid from Him. Isn't that just like God though, to love us, to come after us, to pursue us...despite our sin.
Ok, I got off the path a little there......but today I want to challenge you to think about the price that is being paid in your life. Is it a price you are paying because you are making decisions that are pleasing in God's eyes.....or is it a price being paid because you are expressing free will? Living a life that is pleasing to Him may mean you are NOT doing things that the rest of the world is doing. It means you may not take part in that conversation in the lunch room at work or school. You may not have seen that latest trashy movie that came out. You may not be walking around singing the horrible lyrics to that new song on the radio. Or you may not go to or shop at certain places because of what the support or represent. These are the prices we pay to try and live a consecrated life before God. The reward for this will be great....and that is why the price we are paying here can be easier than people who don't know God think in can. They may think your "different" or even make fun of you for your choices, for your faith, but in the end the price you paid to honor God will be well worth it.
Or maybe the choice is a life of free will and sin. Maybe a person wants to indulge in the things this world has to offer and try to "fit in". Maybe those choices aren't even choices we would consider "horrible", but they are just enough to create distance between you and God. Even when this is allowed, a price is being paid. The enemy would like you to think it's not, but it is. This is a life of deception. Just like satan deceived Adam and Eve into thinking "this won't do something bad"...he is still doing the same thing today.
Some of those choices will have an immediate price to pay, and some will have a price later. Some will be a bad price, and some will be a price like simply not fitting in with the rest of the world. But personally for me, there isn't a price that I could pay out of my love for God any higher than the one Jesus already paid for me. The choice is yours, but all choices do have a price. What will be the one you choose to pay...worldly rewards now and pay the price later...or pay the price of living a consecrated life now and being rewarded later?
It really can't be made any more clear than it is in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". Don't let the enemy convince you that there won't be a price to pay for sin....and don't let him convince you that God won't receive you, forgiven you and love you right where you are. The beauty is, you bring Him the sins you have and He shows you that Jesus already paid for them. And once you make that choice to let Jesus cover your debts, you can take your 2nd chance and go tell others about the price He paid for you.
God, thank You that Jesus did pay a price for us. What You offer us did not come without a price being paid, so help us to accept the price you paid for us, and let the enemy convince us to live a life where we will pay a price later. Holy Spirit convict our hearts, and give us the wisdom to see the price of the choices we are about to make....then help us turn from our sin and repent. Help us to be eternally minded and not live for the moment. And then let our life and our choices draw others to You. In Jesus name, Amen