Avoiding Detours

Yesterday's post discussed how God really does have a "level path" for us to travel, as evidenced in Psalm 27:11: "Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies." Paul David Tripp believes that we often steer off the narrow road because we are both impatient and disloyal. We don't want to wait to see God's plan for us to unfold, and, even worse, we're not even convinced that He knows best. This problem is exacerbated when we reach a crisis moment in our lives; we then slide down a slippery slope into dangerous waters.

"There is no time when this temptation (to impatience and disloyalty) is more powerful than when we are facing difficulty. This is exactly what the verse we are considering recognizes. When you are being hammered by the enemy, it's very tempting to debate within yourself as to whether God's way is the best way. It starts with bad attitudes. Perhaps you begin to doubt God, doubt his goodness, and question his love. Perhaps you give way to anger, impatience, and irritation. Or maybe you begin to allow yourself to envy. You wonder why the guy next to you has such an easy life, when yours is so hard.

These bad attitudes lead to bad habits. You quit praying because you reason that it doesn't seem to be doing any good. You stop reading your Bible because those promises don't seem to be coming true in your life. You quit attending your small group because you can't stand to hear the stories of God's love that others share, when your life is so hard. You even begin to give yourself reasons for missing the Sunday worship serve, reasons you once wouldn't have given yourself. Before too long there is a coldness and distance in your relationship with God that would have shocked you in the early days of your faith. Your difficulty has deceived you into thinking that you have reason for wandering off God's straight path, and your attitudes and habits have placed you on the dangerous side-paths of the kingdom of self."

My father taught me when I was young about the choice to obey: "There's an easy way, and a hard way." Isn't that the truth? Why do we always take the hard way? Why do we spurn God's teaching to just trust and obey? Why do we so often steer into the wide path of mistrusting Him, which only causes us misery? Let's take the easy way, God's way, and stay on the level path. Even though the right road for us might have some significant difficulties, it is still greatly to be preferred to detours that may lead us far away from Him.