LOOK BOTH WAYS before crossing the street. It’s a simple thing that we learn as a child in order to not get squished like grape. You would do well to heed its advice. I have been in two car wrecks in my life. One was back in 2009 when our family was heading to church first thing in the morning and we came across some black ice. I was driving, I lost control and spun out, hit the embankment and rolled the van, landing right side up. We all walked away from this crash and went to church. Crazy day.
The other wreck was when I was younger and driving my grandmother around. You guessed it, I was crossing traffic. I thought I looked both ways, but my vision was impaired by an 18 wheeler and we were hit. There’s two ways the Christian traveler needs to look: LOOK BACK. It’s prudent to look back- not as a way of remembering your guilt and shame or remembering your sin that He cleansed you of, but in a sense that says, “I need to learn from my mistakes”.
If the choice you are contemplating is a choice that in the past has turned out badly time and time again, it is wise to change your thinking and course of direction. You cannot have the mentality that says, “It will be different THIS time”, probably not. We should be a people that learn from our mistakes. There’s no wisdom in repeating folly. It’s also wise to look back to see how far you have come and to remember to have a heart full of gratitude for what the Lord has done thus far. Looking back keeps my heart full of thanksgiving. As they say, “I may not where I need to be, but thank God I am not who I used to be.”
We are a work in progress. Look back. If you are the same person as you were a year ago and doing the same things, then you have cause for alarm. Or if you have went back to old sins, there is a cause for alarm. But if you can look back and praise God for the changes in you that have taken place and you are still fighting the good fight of faith, then you know the Lord has been at work in you and you have been a faithful servant in obeying your Master. “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”” II Peter 2:21-22
LOOK AHEAD. What could be the consequences for that choice? What are the pros and the cons? Weigh the decision and bring it before the Lord. Do not enter into things hastily. This kind of action is impulsive and being led by your feelings and emotions. It is very prevalent in today’s culture and it is not godly neither is it wise. There’s no wisdom in a hasty decision. Bring every decision before the Lord. Pray continually until you receive an answer. Enter into a time of fasting if needed.
Seek wise counsel from godly friends. Ask for prayer and seek His Word. Ask, “How is this going to affect me or my family in a year or ten years?” Often, you can find your answer in God’s Word if you would just spend some time searching it out. Become a Berean.
A new believer asked me the other day how can you know His voice. I told him that so many believers these days do not know His voice because they are Scripturally ignorant. Like “Weird Science”, people have programmed their own Jesus and call Him Yahweh.
You cannot know His voice without 1. Following, which implies obedience and knowing His commands; and 2. Knowing the nature and character of God. His character is revealed throughout the Bible. Read the Word. Study the Word. Know the Word. All of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. God’s character is fully displayed. “DEAD FLIES cause the ointment of the perfumer to putrefy [and] send forth a vile odor; so does a little folly outweigh wisdom and honor.
A wise man’s heart turns him toward his right hand, but a fool’s heart toward his left. Even when he who is a fool walks along the road, his heart and understanding fail him, and he says of everyone and to everyone that he is a fool.” Ecclesiastes 10:1-3 Don’t be considered among the foolish. God tells you to ask OF HIM wisdom, and He will give it. The next road that needs crossing could altar your whole life. In that first accident I dislocated my collar bone and it has affected me ever since. LOOK BOTH WAYS.
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