Hosea 1-3 / 1 John 5 / Psalm 124 / Proverbs 29:5-8
When you were little, your parents taught you to stay away from anything that would hurt you. You were taught not to touch the stove eye because you would be burned. When you were young, you were taught to look both ways before crossing the street, preferably still holding your parent’s hand.
Now that I have grandbabies, I’m doing all this reinforcing again. Warnings are given, hands are reached for, when necessary little ones are moved out of the way. But at some point, we mature, and we learn to self-govern. If we have learned self-governing well when we are little, then it is not a difficult transition.
Sometimes, when we grow up, we are challenged. No one is watching over us any longer to make sure we are safe and staying out of trouble. At least, we don’t see that someone is watching. God is always watching not because He can’t wait to rap us on our knuckles but because He knows the dangers that wait if we make poor choices. He loves us. It makes Him sad to see us walk into danger.
1 John 5:21 says this, “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” New Living Translation, (NLT).
You may first be thinking that this warning presents no danger and wondering why it would be included with thoughts on keeping away from danger. There is danger in allowing other things to take God’s place in our hearts, and it is varied. For example, we will not hear God’s warning voice if He is not first in our hearts because other loves and voices will have crowded Him out.
Another danger is that we will see God from a skewed perspective depending upon what has taken His place in our affections.Consider, that as Jesus-followers our lives are meant to belong to Him. He should have our love, our attention, our work, etc. If He is not in charge of all that we are! Consequently, our lives will suffer in that we will not fully fulfill the plans He has placed within us.
Of course, we will not see or do all He planned because we are finite humans, but wouldn’t it be an exciting adventure to work hard to always hear Him and follow that path He has planned for us?
Sometimes we believe we want our own way. But once we realize true joy is found in following the way He leads; there is more than enough adventure, joy, love, and mystery when we stay on His path. Not to mention we will also experience the safety of staying in His will.
