The Choice of Faith

Ron Block is a musician with Alison Krauss and Union Station. He wrote the following words about our choice of faith:

"We all have areas in our psyches where we have been programmed through various circumstances with fear and unbelief. There is no condemnation for that. I’m just coming out of 16 years in a band realizing I’ve 'wasted' a lot of time in not developing my own career (recognizing that God doesn’t waste anything, and He 'restores the years the locusts have eaten'). We can look at ourselves, our past, and feel we’re stuck, that we’ve blown it, etc. Or we can recognize that God 'works ALL things after the counsel of His own will' and that He has meant everything in our lives for good--even the Devil, even when we fall into sin (not that He is responsible for it--we are, because we have failed to rely on Him. But like letting my kids blow it and enduring the consequences, it’s a learning experience).

"But here’s the thing: you and I have nothing to do with the past anymore. What we have to deal with is this exact moment we are passing through. And in that moment we can make the choice. We can know what the choice is; we can study the choice; we can talk about the choice. But the bottom line is each one of us can make the choice right now, in whatever area we are struggling, to trust the Lord Jesus Christ and His indwelling power that is beyond anything we can ask or imagine--that power that makes us complete, whole, holy, kings, priests, sons of God, slaves of righteousness, new creations. We can grab hold of that promise right here and now--we can’t do that in the past or the future. That’s where Lewis says, 'The present is all lit up with eternal rays.' And Missler: 'NOW is where time intersects eternity.'

"Also, any kind of self-condemnation is devilry. Once we begin to grab hold of God’s statements of fact (I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; I’m dead to sin, dead to Law; I’m holy, etc.) we eventually start to recognize self-condemnation as an attack from outside ([the] Devil trying to get a foothold with the arrows of Eph. 6).

"I had an attack of devilry the other night, laying in bed thinking about something I’d thoughtlessly said (though without malice). A little bit of self-condemnation began to creep in as I continued ruminating on it (something I’d already confessed and repented and thanked God for cleansing). As the self-condemnation crept in I started thinking of other times when I’d been thoughtless, and the condemning feeling was getting bigger. Suddenly the Lord spoke in my heart and said, 'To let a little bit of condemnation in is to open the door to the whole thing.'

"I slammed the door. I want nothing to do with Romans 7 anymore.

"That’s one example of how the devil tries to destroy our reliance on Christ and steal our joy. We’ve got a choice--not a choice of effort or striving, but of faith. Am I going to rely on God, or not? And we have that choice every moment, even after a lifetime of fear. Believe me . . . I’m making the choice every day regarding my own career, realizing I have put everything into the one basket of the band I’m in and haven’t enlarged the borders of my own unique vision. It’s been a total leap out of the comparison game and into 'God has things for me to do, and whom the Lord calls He enables.'"