Martha Olawale

“For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear; I will help you.” Isaiah 41:13

I was having a conversation with my daughter, and we were trying to think of alternatives to serving Jesus, asking the question,” If not God, then who?” If the world so wants to pry me away from my savior, what alternatives does it offer me? Regardless of how you weigh it, it simply makes sense to follow God.

There are alternatives to all the things we use day to day. For instance, I can use a tissue instead of a paper towel or swap one drink for another. I can go to college or learn a trade, drive or ride in a bus. We have choices for everything we need to get by each day and there’s just no one-size-fits-all, for anything in life.

However, when it comes to following God, we have a single choice. You either follow God, or you don’t. It is a choice that has its root in the fact that we are created by Him and in Him alone, we are complete. Although the world has tried endlessly to offer alternatives to the satisfaction that results from walking with God, we are rattled by those choices because without God at the center, the sphere of our life gets mangled.

You don’t have to mask it or clean your mess up before Christ accepts you to the fold of faith. He loves you enough to clean up all your mess and you can come to Him just as you are. Any alternative the world offers you, wants you to do the work and get your acts together by your strength but your salvation in Christ offers His grace and promises forgiveness, peace, joy, mercy, hope, faith, righteousness, love, unity, and eternity in Heaven. The world can never match this boundless grace God extends to us because it offers, unrest, condemnation, hopelessness, sin, division, damnation, fear, and anxiety.

If not God, then who? What can anyone offer me that supersedes the grace, joy, and fellowship I enjoy walking God? At nights when I don’t know what to do and sleep eludes me, can anyone show up in the middle of the night and sit by me and ease my burden? If I give up the comfort and hope I have in eternity, do I have an alternative guarantee that outweighs the joy of Heaven? There’s just no alternative to God and choosing to follow Christ, gives our lives full meaning.