We have been setting the stage for our future by building level paths to walk rather than uneven paths. So, let’s tie all this stuff up from the end of Hebrews 12. We know that we are on this path and run called life. We know that as we are running together as Christians…we need God and each other. We know that we are able to choose our running surface, an even path that helps us get through the run easier, or, we can lay out before us an uneven path that makes the run harder.
The question is, what are we to do? What if we are on that uneven path that is harder to navigate? Well, understand that God can forgive anything….with repentance…a sincere turning back on to that even path and away from the uneven path.
But there is a strong caution here. Hebrews 12:17 tells us (remember that this is using the example of Esau who sold his birthright for the pleasure of a meal), “Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.”
Let me point out that the rejection was not from God. God can forgive anything that we do–if we repent. But there are some things that we do in life that linger with us the rest of OUR lives. That affair, stealing, treating our children or others around us badly, we can’t always turn back the hands of time! Unfortunately, I see it all the time, where someone’s past comes back to haunt them.
The key, I believe, is that while God forgives us, we may need to live with the consequences of our past. The good news is, the longer we continue on the right path….the farther we get from the wrong path.
IT’S IMPORTANT TO STAY ON THAT EVEN PATH IN LIFE.
It’s often hard to change what’s been done! We are in this race together everybody. We need God and we need each other. So, my questions are:
— Are you strengthening yourself spiritually so you can navigate this run called life? — Are you setting an even path and avoiding the uneven paths of sin? — Are you helping others to stay on that even path so that we can all finish the run together in eternity with God?
May you endure on this run called life. May your strays on the uneven paths in your past strengthen you and not keep you from joining the team on the even path. May you recognize that we need God….and we need each other and more importantly…we need to be that “each other” to someone else to help to keep them in the run.