There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.
(Proverbs 14:12 NLT)
No matter what class, race, ethnicity, alcoholic, drug addict, sane, deranged, financial stability, or beggar on the street people do what they feel is right and then justify it through their own limited ability to reason but not all is lost.
The better control we have, the more successful we appear, the more we can turn situations to our advantage the harder it is to see how limited our sight really is. Sure we become master game players but how do we position ourselves when the game board stretches through all eternity if we can only just see in front of us? The problem is we are all lost and don’t even realize it, to further complicate it this life is a test and whether we pass or fail impacts all of eternity.
We have been given the truth and it is our decision alone to either listen or turn away. Not only do we have God’s Word but He sent His Son so we might see with our own eyes what it looks like to walk this elusive path, yet few listen, and fewer still obey. I have seen people who are on a steady decline, the more they struggle the more tangled they become and still they struggle. Not realizing the situation they are in has come about because of their own doing and in their reasoning they don’t understand why bad things keep happening to them or why they are so unlucky but if they just try harder it will all work out. Their sights are set on those who appear to be “successful” but those players who seem successful set their goals on those who make more money so they can have more stuff. I have also seen those who have made something out of nothing and appear to have really done something but unknowingly struggle just the same. Somewhere deep inside man’s heart God’s voice calls out to turn from his own reasoning. Mankind is intelligent and can do whatever they set their minds to, for we have accomplished many things throughout our time here on earth. We can change our situation so that our label turns from the scarlet letter to being placed on a pedestal, at the extreme we can become the envy of everyone who has less but has anything really changed? I offer that this person has gone from the soupy swamp in danger of drowning to a heart that has crystallized and turned to granite who’s feet are still on shifting sand and in danger of toppling and being broken.
But to those who have had the spiritual insight to see their own situation from God’s perspective (made possible through the Holy Spirit of God) realize Jesus came to save all of us from ourselves and set us free from all that entrap us. I teach a recovery class of which I am both a graduate and still a student of God’s delivering power. I have taught several times that those who are broken are closer to salvation and those with the scarlet letter on their chest have been given the opportunity to start something new but unless they stop struggling and turn everything over to God that split moment of tenderness turns once again to stone and new levels of darkness will be known. No one is exempt and it’s all because of our own blindness and refusal to listen, problem is the time is coming when we have to put down our pencils and turn in our papers but unlike school we don’t get to repeat the grade, for we only have one shot at this life and the result of which is eternal.
All the nations will be gathered in His presence, and He will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
(Matthew 25:32 NLT)
