Life is filled with choices. Many choices involve choosing between the lesser of two evils or selecting the best over better. But choices face us continually. Choosing between our way and God's way sounds simple, but it's not easy.

The Bible tells us of a man named Jonah. His story is found in the Old Testament book of Jonah.

Jonah was a prophet; he spoke for God. (You would think that would be a very worthy profession, worth honoring with highest regard.) But Jonah had a problem: he preferred his way over God's way.

Jonah was commanded to go speak against the wickedness of the city of Nineveh. Jonah was a cheerleader for God's judgment. He was the kind of guy who liked to see people get exactly what was coming to them.

There was a problem between God and Jonah. (It seems ludicrous that anybody could think they could disagree with God and win the argument.) Jonah argued with God and said, "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity" (Jonah 4:2). The message Jonah was to proclaim to the Ninevites was basically "turn or burn" (3:4). Jonah preferred seeing them burn rather than turn to God.

The point is, Jonah's first response was to try to run away from God (1:3). God wasn't about to let Jonah get away with this, so He sent a storm and then a great fish just for Jonah (1:4, 17).

Jonah had some time to think while inside the fish. One of his conclusions was, "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs" (2:8). Jonah was involved in the same tug-of-war that all of us are in every day: our way vs. God's way.

One has to ask, "What's so bad about God's way that we would resist it continually?" The answer is, "God's way is not bad; it's just not our way." The battle rages in every person every day. Those who haven't yet given their lives to Jesus Christ plunge on in their own way, rejecting the saving grace that could be theirs. Others who have given their lives to Christ sometimes struggle with yielding everything completely to God and His control.

God is not silent about the process. Our choice is simply to go God's way and be flooded with His grace (i.e., His dynamic power working in us to give us the desire and power to obey Him), or to go our way in our own strength and literally oppose God every step of our lives. This is the struggle of the ages.

The great Christian and apostle Paul was not exempt from this battle. We find him describing one encounter with God in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Paul had a problem--a "thorn in [his] flesh" (v. 7). He asked God to take it away. That was Paul's way. God basically said, "No, keep the thorn but have My grace."

Paul persisted three times in asking God to take away the thorn. God was persistent in saying, "My grace is sufficient for you" (v. 9). When Paul relaxed in God's way and received grace, his conclusion was that God's grace was better than being free from whatever problems he was having (vv. 9-10).

It's not always easy to make God's grace our first choice, but the more we experience the love and grace of God accompanying us in our humility and obedience, the more inclined we will be to yield quickly.

Our choice may be between doing or not doing what is best, or it may involve choosing to accept a circumstance with grace rather than anger. Whatever it is, we need to be more like Paul than like Jonah.

The choice that really matters is choosing God's way the instant we know it.