Wrong Turn!

We all like our freedom.  We are a little bit spoiled as Americans because we have so much of it that we don’t always know what to do…or even the right thing to do.  As Christians, God has given us free will as well.  His Word outlines the pattern for how we should live our lives, but the choice is up to us as individuals.  Even though God forgives our sins as often as we ask Him to, the circumstances we find ourselves in can have a very negative impact on our lives.

Imagine yourself driving down the road of life.  Things are going just great.  This is how we live when we first become a Christian.  Life is brand new.  We are cleansed of our past mistakes and sins.  The devil doesn’t like that and he will come after us.  Along that highway, we will find lots of temptation placed there by Satan.  We use our free will to make wrong turns and suddenly we find ourselves traveling down a side road.  It’s not the path that God intends for us.  We realize that we have made a mistake and we ask His forgiveness.  As our Heavenly Father, God always forgives, but the circumstances are, we are on this wrong road and it may take a while before a median appears for us to turn around. 

God realizes that His children get off the beating path from time to time.  He forgives our sins, but not our circumstances.  You have probably heard it said that God will answer your prayers in His own time.  Have you ever thought about the decision we make with our free will may just make it harder for God to create a way out for us?  We have to give Him time to look at where we are headed and say, “okay, I see now, I can create a place for this one to turn around right up here.”  Sometimes because of temptation and free will, we don’t always see God’s sign to turn around.  We tend to just make things worse.

When a person obeys the Gospel and makes the life decision to live for the Lord, it angers the devil.  He is a powerful force of evil in the world and at times we all fall victim to his ways.  Fortunately when we pray to God, the devil is weak, he has no power over us.  We can tell Satan to get behind us and stay out of our way.  When we speak God’s Word, the devil is crippled. 

There’s an old vacation Bible school song we used to sing that goes something like this, “roll the Gospel chariot along, roll the Gospel chariot along, if the devil’s in the way, we will roll right over him, we will roll right over him and we won’t tag along behind.”  We need to apply this to our daily lives.  When we are traveling down life’s highway and the devil is standing there holding up his little “will work for your demise” sign, we need to remember the VBS song and roll right over him…and not tag along behind!

I have been on that wrong road too many times to even count.  I have learned my lessons and I am sure you have as well.  Jesus is the hope and the truth that always guides me back to the highway leading to Heaven.