Thursday, January 26, 2012

Am I On the Right Path?

This is a question that I find myself asking a lot while on my walk with Christ on this earth. Am I choosing the right way? Am I following God's will for my life? Am I trying to do things on my own? Sometimes I find that I go through life without considering what God would have me do in situations that come up. As I think about it now, it is like playing the game risk. Do I make moves on my own that may hold serious consequences if I am wrong, or do I place my trust in God for Him to guide me on the right path? Do I look for the advice of others, and give that equal value to what the scripture says? It seems like there are always going to be things that will pull us from our walk and get us off course. This reminds me of a set of scriptures from 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy 4:2-5
"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

How do I make sure I am on the right path? I need to stop, wait, and be ready. The first thing we should do is stop where we are. If you can not honestly say that what you are doing is pleasing in the sight of God, then it stands to reason that you might not be in the will of God. And this is a path that does not need to be traveled on. Because danger awaits us in the form of sin.

Genesis 4:7
"If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Secondly we must wait on God to act, and show us the right path. Too many times we place our trust in other people. And usually the ones that say what we want to hear as described in 2 Timothy 4. We want our ears tickled. We want to believe what we are doing aside from God is justified. And we continue down the wrong path.

Lastly, we must be ready when God says move. The best way to be ready is constant devotion to the Word of God. Because by this, we draw nearer to God, and it is easier for us to hear God lead us on the right path.

Psalm 119:105
"Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path."

And when He speaks, we must go. It may not be the path that we think is right. It may be something that we really do not want to do. But, we need to realize that God looks at everything by the big picture. We see things just where we are.

I heard the story of a pilot who on many occasions flew from Charlotte to Wilmington in the course of a year. On one such trip, the air traffic controller gave the pilot a new course. Feeling that the course was incorrect, the pilot started to move back to the course that was familiar. Within seconds the air traffic controller radioed and asked why the pilot was changing course. The pilot explained that they felt they should be on a different course. The air traffic controller replied that if the pilot did change course, his small one seat air plane would crash into a 747.

So the question again, are we on the right path?

Thanks for reading, and God Bless you all this week!

5 comments:

  1. I will have to post this in two parts since I have a tendancy to ramble...
    I am new to this forum but not to Christianity. I am not a pastor or minister on any level, just a pilgrim wandering through this old world and trying to learn a few lessons and share what I have learned when I can. I would like to answer you question, assuming it is a sincere one and not rhetorical.

    First let’s start with salvation. Salvation and its requirements are defined in Ephesians 2:8-9:

    “For you have been saved by grace through faith; and this did not come from you - it is God's gift. Nor did it come from what you have done, lest anyone should boast.”

    Webster’s dictionary defines a gift as an object freely given with no expectation of payment.

    But there is a catch… and that is that we are saved by GRACE through FAITH which means that in order to receive this gift of salvation faith must already abide in us. And I mean abide ingrained into our very being. So what is this faith and how do you come about it?

    According to Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Wow! That is deep. A good analogy of this is a child at Christmas. He or she has faith that the things that they hope to receive on Christmas day will materialize, and if their family uses the old Christmas tree, the evidence that they will lies wrapped and hidden from their view until the morning of December 25th. Also as a child grows into a teenager that approaches graduation for high school, their faith shifts into the future brightness that begins with a good college education and the shining career that lies beyond. The evidence of a future not yet seen but hope for it springs eternal. This is truly the substance that Paul was writing about.

    But the faith that it takes to receive the gift of salvation through grace is a little more difficult to muster in natural man, whose very nature is to reason away the faith that we had as children and think that we can fix everything ourselves. Well I just ain’t so, Scooter. We have the innate ability to mess up and corrupt everything that we touch if left to our own devices.

    Romans 3:23; "For we all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.."

    Romans 3:10 "There is none righteous, no, not one".

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  2. So where do we as adults get faith? Look in Romans 10:17: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” Hmmm. Does that mean that you have to go to church every Sunday and hear everything that the preacher tells you? No, I don’t think that is what it means at all. The reception of words into your ears to rattle about your head without understanding is not hearing, and unfortunately that is exactly what happens to 80% of church goers on any given Sunday. I may be the anticipation of the football game that is coming on right after services, or the hunger pains that the thought of that fried chicken dinner that momma makes so well inspires, but most parishioners don’t experience much hearing in church.


    Do you remember the story of Elijah the Old Testament prophet who had under the power of God defeated the prophets of Baal in a contest to see whose God was greater, then he went to King Ahab and told him that God would end the drought and sacrificing to Baal was useless, then he ran off into the wilderness to avoid the wrath of Jezebel (talk about a lack of faith) and tried to talk God into killing him. What did God do but send his faithless little servant angels to minister food and drink to build up his strength so he could make the 40 day trip to Mt. Sinai where in Elijah’s mind he was hiding from the rest of the world and possibly from God. But God found him crouching in his cave and asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” To which Elijah replies something to the effect that he is the only true believer left and it’s all so messed up and God better do something! So God gave him the old Moses treatment with earthquakes and fire and wind, none of which God was in, it was just a bunch of noise to scare the hair off of Elijah. When God did finally speak to Elijah it was in a still small voice His voice. He wanted Elijah to know that although God had used him to deliver His wrath upon a cruel and wicked world that the true face of God was that of mercy. And he was prepared, now that Elijah shut up ad listened to what God was telling him, to relieve Elijah of his burden and pass it on to Elisha. When things get hopeless a gentle merciful gospel is delivered by God giving all faith and hope. Thus, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

    Psalms 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth”

    2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight”

    And so to answer your question, ‘Am I on the right path?” , with a few questions. Do you put you trust in an almighty God to the extent that you can hear Him when he speaks in that still small voice? Do you give Him the glory and credit in all things? Do you trust Him with the burdens of your soul and your family’s souls? Are you able to accept the grace that Christ has so freely given in all things? If you can honestly answer yes to all of these questions, then you are “On the Right Track”.

    Here is a word of warning. Be wary of charlatans and false preachers who will lead you astray for personal gain and self glorification. They will put up barriers and wrong turns that will make you doubt your faith and the truth of the gospel.

    To remain steadfast and faithful is not an easy task in this wicked world that we live in, but if you cloth yourself with the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) and live every minute of every day trusting in his unchanging Word, then the things that you do will just be right, and the path that you follow, although it is a narrow one, will be right and wonderful for you and your family.

    When Satan and his demons oppress you (and keep in mind if you are truly a child of God that is all that they can do because you are under the protection of the Creator) just rebuke them and command them to go back where they came from because you are on a mission from God.

    I hope this helps you spiritually and I will remember you in my prayers.

    Your Brother in Christ Jesus,

    Bill Murrell

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    Replies
    1. First of all brother, let me convey my sincerest gratitude to you for your input to this post. You have greatly added to the point that I wanted to make. Although all my posts on this blog are rhetorical, and meant for all Christians to examine where we are in our walk, you have added valuable insights to enhance this devotion. I also commend you for reaching out to someone whom you did not know, but seemed to help. God bless you!

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  3. Great post and Great Comment added to that! It was a nice read! I came along this post as I myself would like to know if I am on the right path(This would include my wife as well) : Are we on the right path, together ? We recently gave our hearts to God(beginning of this year) - dont misunderstand me, we always believed in God and believed to be Christians, but we did it this time with the full intention of following God the right way and believing that we are officially accepting God in our lives as our Savior, Mentor and Father - anyways... We pray every night, we believe in God, we talk to Him during the day, any time of the day. We however do not always religiously go to church, or even read our Bibles every night... does this mean we are on the wrong path ? or not completely on the correct Path ? When you say, "Do we hear that small voice of His" - do you mean actually hear it ? Or does it sound like a thought in my head ? Or is it just a feeling of what is right or wrong, depending on what we are or are about to do ? How exactly should we hear the voice ? We have made a few changes in our lives after giving our hearts to God - we have almost completely stopped drinking(keeping sober), do not use foul language(and if some slip out, we do pray for forgiveness), try not to judge or talk badly about anyone behind their backs etc. etc. So with all this being said, how do we know if we are truly on the right path 100% ? Does not going to church every Sunday or reading our bibles every night mean we are not ? I believe we are.... but how will we truly know ? I dont want to only find out we were not, when God comes and fetches his children.

    Thank you for your time!

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