Don't take the shortcut!

Joshua 7:1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

This past week I got out the ingredients to make a chocolate cake for my son.  I am a little ocd when it comes to recipes and I like to have every ingredient out and ready before I start making anything.  As I picked out six eggs and lined them up on my cutting board I knew I should get a small bowl to crack them in to make sure they were good, but I decided to skip that step.  I knew better.  I put each ingredient in the mixing bowl and began cracking eggs right into the mixture and sure as shooting, one of the eggs was rotten.  It ruined the entire cake.  I was so mad at myself because I knew better than try and take a shortcut!  I had to disappoint my son by not having a cake and I had to own up it was my fault for trying to cut corners.

I could have blamed the stores in Brazil for always selling subpar products.  It wouldn’t have been a lie either.  I could have blamed my daughter for getting that particular flat of eggs at the store.  I could have blamed my husband for wanting to go to the cheap store instead of the better grocery store.  Shoot, I could have blamed the foxes and lizards that killed all 17 of my personal hens that used to give me farm fresh eggs.  But in the end, the fault lay in my own decision to not test the eggs before using them.

You and I can point all the fingers we want at the heartaches we have had to endure in our lives, but in the end, how we choose to apply the Bible’s teachings to them is what matters.  And in order to know what the Bible says about these heartaches, we have to read It, study It, go to church and hear the Pastor preach It and then apply It. 

None of us like to feel alone and at the bottom.  None of us enjoy crying all the time and praying for our lives to change for the better.  But it is what we allow God to do with our lives during these times that makes the difference.  If we want spiritual growth, then we will have to exercise our faith.  We can’t take a shortcut around it or we will never get the “recipe” right and our lives will stink and be rotten just like that bad egg I used.  We have got to quit adding the world’s advice and ethics to our lives and just follow what God says in His Word. 

Did you know that George Mueller prayed for a certain thing for over 29 years?  Did you know that he prayed for a group of friends he had to be saved and one of them didn’t get saved for over 50 years?  George Mueller saw a lot of prayers answered in his lifetime and we would like to think that he had some magical power that we do not possess, but the truth is, some things take time.  God doesn’t always answer in the moment we would like or in the way we would like, but His answer is always perfect.  Either we will choose to have faith in that or we will try and take short cuts and I guarantee you the result will leave a bad taste in our mouths. 

Joshua was a fighter and a brave man for the Lord.  He went to battle after a great victory, but not everything was right in the camp.  God doesn’t over look sin.  We can’t take a shortcut to right living and believe that God doesn’t notice.  He does.  If we want to be found “in peace, without spot and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14) then we need to always keep our sins confessed.  Let’s get to know Him better this year, but let’s not take shortcuts and make our own path.  Let’s follow after Him and what He says in His Word.

Until next time, Lord willing,

Sheri