Many years ago, before I became a Christian, I went through a very difficult time. My husband died in a car accident, and I was trying to navigate life with a toddler and on my own. 

I had been seeing a counselor for a short time and after our final session, as I was leaving the building, I stopped at the head of some stairs and looked down the hallway to an open room. There were people gathered there. They were doing some sort of meditation, not a service of prayer, but someone leading them, directing their thoughts.

They looked so peaceful, something I’d been struggling with. As I stood there, watching, I had the strangest feeling I was at the cusp of a change in my life. In that moment, I knew I had two clear choices. I could go to that room to see about joining in, or I could walk down the stairs and leave the building to go back to the life I was living.

It wasn’t an easy choice. Although I was learning to cope, I was lonely and still hurting. And those people looked so content.

Yet, deep inside, I somehow knew I should not go down that hallway to that room. In that moment of time, there were two forces warring within me and I didn’t understand why.

The book of Job gives us a clear picture of how much Satan wants to disrupt our lives and turn us away from God. 

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Job 1:6-7

You probably know the story of how God allows Satan to afflict Job, who is a blameless and upright man. Thus begins a trial for Job with God and Satan each wanting his surrender. Through everything, Job stayed true to God, saying, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job 13:15a

There are many times in life when we are tested, maybe not with the severity of Job’s testing, but any trial seems harsh. It is important that we carefully consider the choices we’re faced with and choose wisely. It isn’t always easy.

That day, as I stood at the top of that stairway, I knew the choice I made would determine how the rest of my life played out. I can’t explain it, but that feeling was very strong. I turned my back on that classroom, walked down the stairs and never regretted that choice.

What I didn’t realize that was that God and Satan were fighting for me, each wanting me to choose them. After leaving, I spent the next few months struggling with decisions and how to live my life, finally coming to the point where I surrendered my life to Christ.

That was the best choice I have ever made.

How about you? Have you chosen Christ? Is Satan trying to influence you to choose Him? Consider these words from Deuteronomy and choose life:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them,I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…”Deuteronomy 30:15-19