This morning as I was sitting on the porch of the cabin we’re staying at in Branson, I noticed this crooked little tree. I’m sure there was a reason it took the crooked path it did, I just don’t know what it was. It’s interesting though that after a being “off course” for awhile, it corrected itself.
Maybe you can relate to this little tree. I can.
Was there a season in your life when you got off course? Or are you off course now?
Sometimes we can look back and see where we made the wrong turn. It could have started with a small compromise or a bad decision. Or a sin. Maybe you felt like God let you down and that led to feeling disappointed with Him. Even angry at Him. So you decided to go your own way.
I understand all of it. I’ve been there.
We need to be reminded that God’s will is always good and perfect. It’s better than anything we can get on our own. And the longer we stay off course, the longer we miss out on what is best for us.
One of my favorite passages is James 4:1-10…
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Who are the proud? Those who choose to go their own way. Those living apart from God. Those who choose to live “off course.”
And God graciously opposes them. He blocks them. So they will come back to Him. So they will correct their course and go His way.
So who are the humble, those who experience God’s grace? The answer is found in verse 7: “Submit yourselves, then, to God.”
The humble are those who submit to Him, who surrender their lives to Him. The ones who turn from the wrong course and intentionally choose to follow Him again.
And what do we find when we do?
He is waiting there with open arms and a heart full of grace. He will not turn us away. He will not berate us. He will not hold our sin over us. He will give us more grace. He will come near to us. And He will lift us up.