Clear Choice

DEVOTION PROVERBS Clear Choice Prov 15:15 15 All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast. NIV Is this really about people living in an opposed situation in life being wretched and those not living in that manner having a grand old time? I think not. Who is the great oppressor of the soul? Who is it that tries with all his might to oppress people? Satan is the one who would desire nothing more than to see people so oppressed they would even commit suicide. Is it any wonder God declares those people who allow Satan to oppress them wretched? Now it may be true some of them simply do not know the solution to this oppression. Some of them may not ever have heard that Jesus can set them free, and if he does, they are free indeed. Some of them have heard and refuse to escape from being oppressed by Satan. It is difficult to understand how anyone would want to continue in that condition, but then again Satan has so deceived them into believing they have made the right choice. He has filled their minds, oppressing them, with thoughts of their own greatness, making worldly knowledge, intelligence, science and money their gods, which indeed makes them wretched. It is sad to watch them living within that deceptive trap, being oppressed, but it is their choice. The people who have decided to be freed from his oppression by the blood of the lamb indeed have a reason to be of cheerful heart. No longer having to live under that oppression, but being free to see the truth of God, and understanding the power to live a life filled with the fruit of His Spirit, knowing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Feasting continually upon the very Word of God enjoying all the fruit, enjoying all the gifts of the Spirit, enjoying the nourishment from the stream of living water, drinking in all that is within it makes for a very cheerful heart. Once again it would seem quite clear which the best way to live is.