The Way of the Transgressor

Scripture:  “Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the transgressor is hard [like the barren, dry soil or the impassable swamp].  Prov. 13:15 (AMP)

A few months ago, I heard a judge tell a defendant, ‘….and you thought your idea was much better than mine?!?’  The defendant had removed himself from two treatment programs that the judge had specifically ordered him to complete.  Yet, for some reason, he felt justified in vacating the judge’s plan in favor of one better suited to his own preferences.  Bad idea!  

We, in the wake of our own disobedience to God’s holy laws, have been pardoned through faith in the blood of Christ, and given the daily choice to keep on choosing His plans, His ways, His written decrees; but just like that man who violated his probation, we, too, forfeit God’s best blessings when we choose to believe that our plan in any difficult circumstance is better than His!  “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way…” (Is. 53:6) We often unwisely exalt our own creativity, rely upon our own resources, and exhaust ourselves seeking  remedies to our problems--remedies that omit God from the equation, from A to Z!  I love how the Amplified Bible describes the beauty of submitting to Christ’s way:  “…My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp,  or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant),  and My burden is light and easy to be borne.” (Matt. 11:30).  

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, help us to daily resist the temptation to permit our thinking and our problem-solving to be “corrupted and seduced from wholehearted and sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”  (II Cor. 11:3 –Amp)

(by Denise Diggs)