What Path Are You On?

 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.  1 Jn. 5:13

The instinct of eternal life is woven into the fabric of man's soul. It is a quest that we have from the moment of birth and the divergent paths man takes to get there are beyond enumeration.  We have an innate desire to find God and to live forever buried deep within us, and while this is good, it also presents an opportunity for the evil one to throw confusion into the mix.  John gives us an indicator for knowing we are on the right path: "you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him" (1 John 2:29).  Practicing righteousness is not being "holier than thou!"  It is doing what is right because it is right, upstanding, morally right, good, uplifting and here it comes.......Godly!  When practice and behavior are not these, then I am not on the right path.  I can go to church, be a good citizen, a parent, part of the community, etc., but Satan knows that if he can get our practice to be something other than "righteous" then he has deceived us and laughs at what gullible "monkeys" we are. The scripture is certainly God's standard for us, however it is obvious none of us measures up to it. Even John himself said, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).

When John spoke of "everyone who practices righteousness," he was thinking of our normal practice, of the dominant direction of our lives.Sometimes our obedience is marked more by desire than by performance. So we have to ask ourselves: 

• Is my life characterized by an earnest desire and a sincere effort to obey God in all that he commands? 
• What is my attitude toward God's law? Do I find it to be holy, just, and good? 
• Do I delight in God and His word within my soul? Is it my bread and does it quench my thirst, even though I  struggle with it sometimes? (See Romans 7:12,22-23.)

Accompanying our sincere desire to obey God will be a heightened sensitivity to our sin. This again is where we must be cautious, because sin scars and sears callousness within the soul. At times that callousness will cause us to not be affected by the calling of "what is right" to our hearts not to do what we are going to engage in. It causes us to lose our sense of the correct path. Often it's our increased awareness of sin that causes us to doubt our salvation or to give Satan an inroad into our minds to suggest that "a Christian wouldn't sin like you do." He wants unbelievers to be complacent about their sin. 

So turn the tables on Satan and your own internal doubts. Proverbs 8 tells us that wisdom calls to us from everywhere. To let go of our personal deceptions and illusions of right, and come back to the path that we KNOW is right.  

 For whosoever finds me shall find life and shall obtain the will of the LORD. But he that sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those that hate me love death.

Prov.8:35,36

Jim