“Nevertheless,
God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ‘The Lord
knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord
must turn away from wickedness.’ Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue
righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out
of a pure heart.” –Proverbs 2: 19, 22
God knows who his children are and he loves them very much.
After all, God IS love so it’s his nature and essence to love his children. He will
never stop loving us no matter how unlovely and scorned we may feel throughout our day whether by ourselves or by the people that come in and out of our lives.
Many times we beat ourselves up, listen to people who are hateful towards us,
or believe Satan’s lies about us, but we can rest assured that God will never
stop loving us.
The thing about this
kind of love though is that it doesn’t mean God will just let us get away with
living the kind of lifestyle we want to live with no consequences. Like a parent
he will encourage us to “stay away from the hot stove.” He will discipline us
as his children and show tough love and he will try to bring his wandering
children back to him. The Bible says that God’s children hear his voice and he
calls them by name. How beautiful is it that God knows every intimate detail
about us and has a unique plan for every one of us? Why would we waste our time
comparing ourselves to somebody else’s journey when God is moving us on our own unique
path in his plan for our life? The sad part is many of us aren't living in his plan because we've left God's way. This isn't God's plan for us. He wants us to come back to it. The question I have to ask all of us though is,
can we still hear his voice and leading on our lives? Do we feel a sense of
shame, regret, and conviction in our hearts when we leave his path for darkness
and wickedness or do we just go with the flow and not even think about it? The
Bible speaks about how the Holy Spirit will eventually give us over to our
sinful ways after awhile and stop convicting us of our sin if we refuse to listen. He will always welcome us back with open arms though. Again, he loves us more than we can possibly understand. The Bible
speaks about the wayward person who commits sin, goes and eats, and wipes their
mouth like they never did anything wrong. This is speaking of a person
showing zero conviction. This is a scary place to be if you call yourself a
Christian. Are you convicted when you sin or are you so far gone that there’s
zero remorse?
Men, is your walk authentic? Is it real? I can attest many
times my walk is going through the motions even while having my daily
devotions, praying, going to church, being in a small group of men, witnessing
to others, still, with all of that in a week I still feel like I don’t want to
win the battle against sin bad enough and I selfishly give into the moment and
sin. Man, this is so disappointing for us as men of God! I have a feeling there’s
many like me in this battle of wrong verses right. The latter part of these
verses above tells us to stay away from these evil desires that pressure us in
our youth. We need to get back to pursuing a pure heart centered on God’s love
for us and our obedience to him. Remember, the sin we participate in today may
not seem like a big deal but Satan is a crafty manipulator and we can’t see the
consequences that are headed our way by giving into it. It’s ugly guys! There
are so many destroyed relationships, separated families, fatherless children,
abused people, scorned woman, bitter and hurt individuals, etc. because of our selfish desires and a
willingness to just satisfy ourselves and what we want as men. It’s never too
late men though to start fresh and renew your walk with the Lord out of a
repentant heart. There’s no better day than today. Renew yourself in the Lord
and start hearing his voice and let him change you into something amazing as
you embrace your walk and direction he has for your life. Get going men!
It’s easy to get lost
along life’s journey when we walk our own path and can no longer hear our
leader’s voice.
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