Briefing: People make choices every day. Some choices are good and some choices are bad. A law enforcement officer’s day is usually occupied by the bad choices, but what about your choices?

Dispatch (Assignment): Read Romans 8:28-30.

On the Street: This devotional series talks a lot about being called and set apart. These things are true. God will call us into service and use us for His purpose. This does not necessarily mean your salvation is automatically secure. God called and used Pharaoh and Pilate as His appointed instruments of authority and their entry into heaven did not look promising.

Paul says if you want God to work all things out for your good then you must love God. What does it mean to love God? “If you love me, keep my commands” – John 14:15. Remember back in Romans 6:15-23, we are told that once you are saved you have work to do. Obeying God’s commands and living a righteous life is part of your works. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” Ephesians 2:10.

Most law enforcement officers have a calling on their life to do this job. Paul alludes to this calling in verse 28, “who have been called according to His purpose”. As previously stated, this is the beginning of your works, not the finish line. The calling into this profession is a wonderful opportunity to carry out the job God has designed you for but it is all for nothing if you do not love God.

Contrary to what you might have seen and heard, being a peace officer does not make you a peacemaker. Your ticket to heaven is not automatically punched just because you were called to this line of work. Matthew 22:14 Jesus said, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (ESV).

To be chosen by God, you must choose God. God looks ahead and knows if you choose Him or not I believe this is where the predestination comes in. Jesus says in Luke 9:26, “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels.” We can choose to love God and carry out His calling on our lives by being set apart and loving Him or we can be satisfied with just being called yet ashamed of Him. “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” Joshua 24:15.

Do you want to enter heaven? You must choose to love God and carry out His plan for your life. Move forward and don’t look back. You are a new creation. My prayer is that in God’s perfect timing you will choose to follow Him all the days of your life.

Investigational Resources: Deuteronomy 30:19-20 and John 7:16-18.

Officer Safety Principle: We make choices every day. Make the choice today to love God.

from The Book of Romans Through the Eyes of a Cop
©by Charles Gilliland. Used by permission.
Click here to check out the entire Through the Eyes of a Cop series!