We Choose To Follow Or To Not Follow

What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Romans 8:31-35

We are our own worst enemy.

That is a lesson I relearn fairly often. Sadly, it is a lesson I apparently never manage to learn completely.

Almost without exception, every difficulty I have faced in life comes about at least in part because of some bit of stupidity on my behalf.

I let my pride get ahead of my reason.

I let my desires take control over my common sense.

I let my various and sundry “issues” define who I am and how I must behave.

Every time I do, it ends badly for me.

It may not end catastrophically badly, but it never ends well.

There has never been a time where my ego and vanity have brought me good things.

There has never been a time when a lust for this or that has brought me joy and fulfillment.

There has never been a time when fretting over my various and sundry “issues” has brought me peace.

Instead, all any of these things bring me is more worry, more anxiety, more strife.

Of course, the other name for pride, for lust, for demons and thorns in the flesh is simply “sin”.

When I let these things take charge of my life, invariably it means I am wallowing in sin. It means I am doing things I know I should not be doing—even as I am doing them.

Then my common sense returns, my reason reasserts itself, while my various and sundry “issues” subside. Then I pick myself up, dust myself off, and set about once more living a life where I do the right thing and not the wrong thing.

Then I pick myself up, dust myself off, and resolve once more to follow God’s Law and heed God’s Word.

I always mean it when I do, yet somewhere down the road I will stumble and fall again.

I am not a man beset by problems. I’m just a man who’s far too skilled at causing my own problems.

I am my own worst enemy.

Yet when I do resolve once more to follow God’s Law and heed God’s Word, amazingly enough, God is right there. It’s as if He never left, but was always just waiting for me to return.

I wander away time and time again, yet He remains right there, waiting for me to return.

I know this because every time I do resolve once more to follow God’s Law and heed God’s Word, that is when I know joy, and fullfillment, and peace.

That might sound corny to some. It just happens to be true.

I’m no saint. I’m certainly no wise man. I probably am not even all that good at being “Christian”.

I’m a man. I’m a man who makes mistakes. I’m a man who regrets making mistakes.

I’m also a man who believes that people can recover from their mistakes. I believe that people can always pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and choose to follow God, follow God’s Law, and heed God’s Word.

The reality is that is is always my choice whether I follow God’s Law or whether I disregard God’s Law. It is always my choice whether I do the right thing or whether I do the wrong thing. It is always my choice whether or not I sin.

The reality is also that God is always there when I regret, repent, and resolve to do better.

One lesson I have learned is to trust that God is always there, and will always be there.

God doesn’t leave me. I leave God—and then I come back again.

God doesn’t leave us. We leave God. Hopefully, we come back again.

The leaving, the regretting, the repenting, and the returning are all choices I make.

Which means the reality is also that I am the only one who can separate me from God. I am the only one who can separate me from the joy, fulfillment, and peace that comes from choosing to follow God.

My prayer on every day is that on every day I will choose to follow God. My prayer on every day is that on every day I will choose to follow God’s Law, and heed God’s Word. My prayer on every day is that on every day I will choose to do the right thing.

My prayer for you is that on every day you will choose to follow God. My prayer for you is that on every day you will choose to follow God’s Law, and heed God’s Word. My prayer for you is that on every day you will choose to do the right thing.

God doesn’t leave me. I leave God—and then I come back again.

I am the only one who can separate me from God. Thankfully, I am the also one who can choose to return to God again—knowing that He is always there, for He has never left.