OUR HOPE: The Crooked Road

Have you ever taken a crooked road to arrive at an oft visited destination?  Did it take you longer than the road you usually take, which is straight and direct?  Was it more pleasant to travel, or did it present more difficulties?  And when you reached that destination, were you fresh or were you travel weary?

We often spend lots of time figuring out the quickest way to travel from Point A to Point B.  This is not always in regards to physical travel, but it can be in the way we do business, or raise our families, or achieve personal or professional goals.

Sometimes we try to arrive there too quickly.  We take shortcuts, and sometimes we take advantage of people, to reach our goal in less time.  We think the faster we arrive, the better the end result.  However, we fail to see that when we do all we can to make it to the prize, we have given up certain values, used others without thought, and generally we have willfully wandered away from our principles of faith.  In short, we have turned our back on God, and His wisdom, and have made our own choices, completely in our own wisdom.  And this is never good.

Crooked roads often make us crooked people.  And they can lead to destruction.  God wants us on a straight path, moving ahead on the road of righteousness.  He wants us to arrive safely, and to experience life at its best once we are there.  And He requires us to be influences for good to those who come in contact with us.  He does not want us to run over others to cross the finish line.  He does not wish for us to cheat or scheme to collect our bounty and move on.  God wants to give us His wisdom, His ways, His concepts and precepts, to achieve every measure of success we aim for.  But to do that, and to do it effectively, there is one thing we must do first…get off that crooked road.

Think about it.  Study on it.  Pray for understanding, for wisdom, for guidance, and for hope.  We can reach any goal we set out to attain, if it is in God’s will, and if we take the proper steps to get there.  God is Our Hope, and because of this, His words are meant to make a difference in our lives, and the lives of others, by the way we travel through this life, and on into the next.  The straight road is always best, even if it takes a bit longer, and even if the scenery is not all we would like it to be.   The outcome will bring glory to our Lord, and the benefit to us is eternal.

‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.’ Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

Blessings!