Road blocks along the way posted by jwatson on Mar 19, 2013

(Written by Monique Godfrey)

Walking the path God has planned for us is never easy.  We all want to stay on the path towards God’s best for us. We become driven, we try to stay determined, and we become desperate for God’s best but the road blocks keep us from gaining ground.

Here are two obstacles that get in the way when trying to walk the path that God has planned for us:  unhealthy cravings and coming unglued.

Unhealthy cravings

What does it mean to crave? It means to want greatly, desire eagerly, and beg for. Are all cravings bad? No. God made us to crave. Psalms 84:1-2 says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God”. We are supposed to satisfy our deepest desire (our cravings) with God, not anything else. Our unhealthy cravings create a road block called the temptation to replace God in our lives with other things. 1 John 2:15-16 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-comes not from the Father but from the world”. These three warnings are detours that send us off road:

• The cravings of sinful man are us trying to get our physical desires met outside the will of God.
• The lusts of the eyes are us trying to get our material desires met outside the will of God.
• The pride of life is us boasting of what we have or what we have done.

Coming unglued

When we become unglued we get off the path and into the trees. When we get into the trees we cannot see very clearly. When your life, your emotions, and your reactions get a bit messy that is when you have come unglued. Is it okay to make imperfect progress in our journey, following the path? You bet it is. Sometimes we think that Christians are supposed to be perfect or at least appear perfect. This however is a mistake. 1 Timothy 4:15says, “Practice these things; immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress”.  It is by our falling down and getting back up that others see that we have a faith that we live out day by day, not just an occasional name-tag we wear when it is convenient.

Getting past the detours

To get past the detours and around the road blocks that sent us in the wrong direction we must:

1. Press into God when we want to pull away (Jeremiah 29:13),
2. Praise God out loud when we want to get lost in complaints (Psalms 40:3), and
3. Put ourselves in the company of truth (Proverbs 12:26).

Our ultimate goal is to stay on the path by saying yes to God. Whatever God says do, do it (Psalms 16:7-9). God wants us to live in expectation of hearing from him (Psalms 19:8).

(Monique Godfrey serves as an EE Implementation Field Worker in Portland, Oregon)