Thursday, August 1, 2013 -- Real Trouble (2)
Thursday August 1, 2013
The people refused to enter the pleasant land, for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them. Psalm 106:24 (NLT)
These days we are looking at ways God is teaching us to avoid unnecessary difficulties in our daily living. God is kind enough to show us a safe and peaceful way to walk every day in every situation. The question is, will we follow His teaching or will we stubbornly do our own thing? Our decision will result in times of peace and joy or we'll find ourselves in even more trouble than we know what to do with.
I have visited with women in correctional facilities over a number of years. I've observed those women, while they were incarcerated, take time to reflect on what it would take to leave the old life of trouble behind and enter into something new. Some make new choices based on new beliefs about what God says works. They find a new life and I never see them in an institution again. Others, hear the good news, want change, but cycle back and forth, in and out of the institution because they continue to let old thoughts, old desires, old ways of doing things, crowd out the new information on the good life that God is offering them. Time and time again they find themselves in circumstances which add on more and more trouble as they maintain the lifestyle they are familiar with. While we may not end up in a correctional institution, we will find ourselves in chains of darkness and evil as long as we run life on our own ideas rather than following God's good plan. Let's heed God's voice of truth and direction today.
Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble. Proverbs 13:20 (NLT)
The crooked heart will not prosper; the lying tongue tumbles into trouble. Proverbs 17:20 (NLT)
Blessed are those who fear to do wrong, but the stubborn are headed for serious trouble. Proverbs 28:14 (NLT)
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