How Do I Know Jesus? - Series Part 4
Why Should I Give Myself to Him When He Created Me?
Have you ever heard of people talking about a "fork in the road"? It's often in fables and folktales; Something like, "a young girl is skipping happily through a path in the woods when suddenly she approaches a fork in the trail. She can either choose to take the path on the left, or the path on the right. Whatever shall she choose?"
The truth is we are all on this same path the fictional girl is taking, but not just for one little stroll. We approach this choice every single day, or even every moment, of our lives.
Imagine yourself as the little girl. Your shoes are double-knotted, your hair stands high up in pigtails, an adorably crooked smile plastered across your tiny face. You're skipping through the woods on the path, and everything is... simple. You wake up every morning to your favorite cartoons on TV, and you crawl onto the couch with a stuffed animal to watch it with you while you drink some juice. Everyone takes care of you, giving you warm food when you're hungry before sending you off to go play outside or with your favorite toys. You sit in the backseat of cars while you get driven everywhere, the music on the radio streaming into your little ears while you look at the huge world out the window before you. The world is a safe, bright, extraordinary place where all that matters is exploring and having as much fun as possible. The forest surrounding you as you skip through the trail is bright and lush with overflowing flowers, trees, and soft grass. But then you hit that fork for the first time. For everyone it's different, and maybe you don't even remember it. You hit that fork when you're suddenly faced with the reality that the world isn't a fairytale place, and that bad things, really bad things happen, and sometimes we do things wrong. A couple things come to mind for me. I remember seeing things on the news in the morning that really scared me about criminals, and fear began to grow in me about "bad guys" and monsters. This was reinforced by movies and TV shows I watched that scared me. I also was faced with the mental dilemma of stealing when there were a bunch of stuffed animals I wanted at a garage sale and I stole $20 from my brother's wallet. I chose the wrong paths. Living in fear, and stealing from my brother.
Do you remember some of the first times you were faced with the fork in the road?
The older we get, the more complicated the paths can become, because when we're no longer a child, that's when we learn how to sin, and we start noticing sinfulness in others and in our world. Suddenly the forest doesn't seem so beautiful anymore. The sun has gone down. The trees that once swayed gently in the breeze with lively green leaves now leave dark shadows with their branches that look like monsters trying to capture and harm you. The air is cold, and you long for the days when you were younger, when the air was always warm and you felt safe. You feel like the path is winding in circles, making you dizzy. Nothing makes sense anymore. The bible says,
"For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”"
All of these things are sin. The things that God has told us "No. Not for you." Just like a mother would say to her child, trying to pick up something dangerous, like a knife. Sin is a knife. It's all the things that hurt us most.
Sexual immorality falls underneath a large umbrella of lust. Betrayal like adultery, or bestiality, or any kind of fornication. Lust is not love, but purely pleasure to the body.
Theft is taking what does not belong to you, simply to keep it for yourself.
Murder is obviously taking someone else's life.
Greed is the love of money. The bible says, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
Malice is a spirit of revenge, or a desire to harm someone else for your own gain or pleasure.
Deceit is lies.
Lewdness is purposely living without restraint, either sexually, outrageously, or otherwise.
Envy is jealously over the blessings and achievement of others.
Slander is cruel statements, either true or untrue used to harm another person.
Arrogance is pride, exaggerating your own worth or importance, or thinking you know more, or better than God.
Folly is choosing to ignore pursuing God and instead making your own way in the world.
All of these sins can also be described simply by reading the ten commandments.
1.) You shall have no other God's before me = Arrogance, Folly.
2.) You shall not make idols = Arrogance, Folly
3.) You shall not take the name of your Lord God in vain = Folly, Lewdness
4.) Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy = Folly
5.) Honor your Father and your Mother = Malice, Arrogance, Lewdness, Folly
6.) You shall not murder = Malice, Murder, Arrogance
7.) You shall not commit adultery = Adultery, Sexual Immorality, Lewdness
8.) You shall not steal = Theft
9.) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor = Deceit
10.) You shall not covet = Lust, Envy, Greed
Now that's a long list of rules, right? Remember how I said that these sins are all the things that harm us the most? Well they are also some of the things we desire the most, too. The things that we just can't resist sometimes, like being envious of someone else, wanting something they have, or lusting after someone. These feelings can be incredibly powerful. How on earth are we supposed to follow all of these rules? The truth is, nobody ever could except God himself. Jesus was the only human who ever lived a life without sin. And coming from the expert himself, he gave us a little tip to help us follow this huge list of rules a little easier.
"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and greatest commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. [40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
So, the most important things in the world are very, surprisingly simple: Love God and love people.
Yet we still have that fork in the road. God, people, temptation, anger, sadness, confusion. Why is it so hard to follow the rules? Your eyes move back and forth, right and left, from the first path, to the second one. Sometimes knowing the right thing to do, isn't enough to make you do it. You go down the wrong path again, even though you know you shouldn't. Why? For the same reason Adam and Eve ate the apple, the same reason we all have selfish desires. We are tempted. There is an enemy in this world that hates God and will do absolutely anything to destroy anything beautiful He created in this world. The devil tempts us on purpose. He knows our weaknesses as humans. He knows we are all prideful, and want money, and pleasure, and power, and he feeds on this in our lives in an attempt to distract us and take us as far away from God as possible. Why would we want anything to do with God if all we have at our disposal is pleasure? Clearly we're doing fine for ourselves after all, right? If I am already happy, why would I need God?
If we have what we think we need, God's love doesn't seem necessary. This is a lie, and a distraction to keep you away from the truth. If sex, power, money, or relationships really made people happy, then why are some of the people who have this still completely miserable? Why do people from rich families still get depressed and commit suicide? Why are the people of rich countries like ours still so lost? There is something our soul craves more than anything else, and it is God. The devil simply uses distractions that are pleasing to our flesh to lure us as far away from God as possible. He twists everything to confuse us and make us unsure of our actions or our place in this world. Why is it that suddenly following the bible, doing things like saving yourself for marriage or speaking outwardly about loving Jesus is "taboo" and "offensive"? He twisted it. Everything has been made backwards on purpose- Christians are often seen as judgemental, homophobic, racist people who are full of hate, when it is the exact opposite. The devil wants to keep as many people away from God as possible, and by twisting the narrative and confusing people into thinking loving God is "taboo" or "uncool" many turn away from him without really even thinking about it. The bible says the devil is the author of confusion, but God is the author of peace.
We hit forks in the road every single day. We need to make so many choices, some big, some seemingly very small, but they all matter. Whether you smile at someone in the hallway, or you make a choice to suddenly move to another country, each choice matters. That's why it's important to lean on God for your understanding, and not your own. We need him more than we even realize because every day we use his rules without even thinking about it. What we call "kindness" or "good morals" is just obeying God's commands. He sketched out this entire universe and he knows it piece by piece. He knows how many hairs are on your head and he knows each star by name. This is his creation, and it functions the way he designed it to. We are often just too blind to notice that his signature is gleaming on everything we touch. We're too caught up in ourselves and our selfish desires to notice or even think about what he wants, yet we step around in his creation every moment. Our breath is not our own. It was breathed into us by something greater, which is why it can be so easily taken away.
We once talked about God being our center. We all have one- The thing inside of us that dictates the choices we make. A lot of times we make choices simply based on what we want or what would make us happiest, when really our center should be God. He should be the sun in our minds, everything else orbiting around it. When you reach a fork in the road, big or small, and you have to make a decision, our goal should be to have this first thought:
"What would God want me to do?"
You'll find that being obedient to Him can make a lot of people angry at you. It can make people see you as strange or weird. It can feel uncomfortable, or make you feel very alone. But you'll also find that when you do, it leads you to a greater understanding of yourself, the world, and your place in it. You learn what truly matters, and who you are not to friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, family, or anyone else, but who you are alone in God.
So, to recap, now we know that we are faced with forks in the road on a daily basis, and we should be obedient to God and his rules when making these difficult choices. We know that there's an enemy constantly trying to make us choose wrong, and we know that it's hard to resist these temptations because they can be very pleasing to us. But why does it matter?
God didn't make up these rules to stop us from having fun or feeling good, it's actually the exact opposite. It's like what I said before about a little child reaching for a knife. His mother will grab him into her arms and say, "No. Not for you." That's exactly what God is doing, only he can't always just come down, scoop us into his arms and tell us not to do something. It's up to us, because He wants us to choose Him on our own free will. You wouldn't want someone to love you because they are forced to, right? So why would He? He's not going to force anyone to do anything. He loves us, but He knows He can't control everything we do, and I don't think He wants to.
So, it's up to you. But why? You may still ask. I am comfortable in my life, I am happy, and I have everything I want. So why would I give myself to him?
There is a quote from a Christian movie called "God's not dead" that always stuck with me. A woman in the movie says,
"Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn't want them turning to God. Your sin is like a jail cell, except it's all nice and comfy, there doesn't seem to be any need to leave. The door's wide open, until one day, time runs out, and the cell door slams shut and suddenly...It's too late."
One day, whether you like it or not, you're going to have to face God. You're going to have to face the person you have been on this Earth. It's just like anything else- There's an ending, a finish line. Only with God, the end is just the beginning.
Imagine a middle school child beginning to vape/smoke. It feels good and they are content with it right now. But what about a year from now? Or five? Ten? Twenty? What is the end goal? Will this be beneficial to the child as they grow up, or will it hurt them?
It's the same thing with God. You can't just expect everything to work out eventually and hope that it will be fine. Change never happens if you don't make changes, and the time is now. Not a couple months, or a year from now, when you assume you'll get bored and decide to stop. Not waiting to feel a connection with God so that you can then get closer with Him. The time is now. It's really easy to get comfortable where you are because the door is wide open for you to make a change, but someday the door will close. Would you rather barely make it out as it's shutting you in, or be so far away by the time it's closed that you forgot there was even a door in the first place?
So, the fictional little girl is all grown up now as she slowly walks through the woods. She hits yet another fork in the road. What will she choose?
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