What the object of the love of the heart is, is object of the choice of the will. And such as is the choice of your wills, such are you. If you choose the world before Christ, I dare boldly to call you a worldly man! If you choose pleasures before Christ, I dare confidently to declare you a voluptuous man! But if Christ is chosen before all other things, I may term you to be a truly holy man.
Suppose then the world, and all the riches thereof, and all the honors and the pleasures of it, were set on the one hand and Christ on the other hand. Which would you really choose? It is an easy thing to say that you would choose Christ, and not the world. But my question is: Which you would really choose?
Can you say, and appeal to God who knows your heart: "Lord, You who know all things. You know that I choose Christ before riches, Christ before pleasures, liberty, life, or anything that is dear unto me in this world. You know that I would rather have Christ without the world than the world without Christ. You know that I would rather have the Lord Jesus with disgrace, with poverty, and with the cross than all the treasures of the world!"
This must be a man's choice or he cannot be said to have sincere love to Jesus Christ. If Jesus is not loved above all. He is not sincerely loved at all!
[Thomas Brooks]
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Deuteronomy 30:19 ... I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Joshua 24:15 ... And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Matthew 6:24 ... No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.❤
