Choose Which Foot

 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. (Matthew 7:13)

Will we be among the many or the few? The choices we make can determine the course of our future and will lead us to God or to death and destruction.

Our self-centered sinful nature will often cause us to follow the wrong path especially when we are young. By the time we learn to reason, we can be so used to making selfish choices that we use our reasoning capabilities to justify our actions and they become right in our own eyes. It is not until we suffer the consequences of those choices that we realize they were not right and they did not provide us with the joy and fun that we thought they would.

Choices can save a life or ruin one. Satan has made it seem like the easier choice is the choice to do wrong, the choice to sin against God. When our friends are choosing drugs and alcohol, pressure to join in, knowing that our actions are not pleasing to God, is strong. People doing wrong things often look like they are having fun and always encourage us to join them. That is the wide gate and do not be fooled, those choices are sin.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12)

Ask anyone who has turned away from a life of wrong choices if the drama, the fear, the pain, the emotional upheaval, the lying, the jail time, the running, the homelessness, was fun? The answer is always no. Unfortunately choosing to get out of that life is more difficult than getting in.

Alcoholics and addicts are taught to leave their old life behind. They do not hang out with their old friends or go to their old hangouts. They must separate themselves from that life to maintain their sobriety.

This is also a necessary choice for those who are committing crimes and/or sinning. When the people making bad choices have become our family, leaving them is the hardest thing we will ever do but it is surely necessary. As difficult as the choice may be to leave behind all that we know and are comfortable with, it is the only way to truly change and find peace. We cannot have a foot in both worlds.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24)

And we cannot serve God and the world, our old friends, our old life, or our old loves. This is a greatly difficult choice for those who have been raised as if wrong were right and right was to be avoided.

Life is all about choices. No matter where we are in our lives today, we must evaluate where we should be and make choices to get there. For some, the choices will be easy. Maybe we will choose to be more faithful to church or read our bible more so that we can grow closer to God and be who He wants us to be as Christians. 

But for some, the choices are more difficult. We may have to choose to separate ourselves from family members or those we love because they are addicts, dealers, thieves, liars and the like. We may have promised to stand by them and want to keep our promises, but God is telling us to allow Him to work in their lives. God is telling us to allow them to suffer the consequences of their choices or they will never choose Him. Only God can rescue the perishing.

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. (Psalm 37:39)

We must choose to remove one foot from either the sinful world or from God’s path. Which will we choose?

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

Prayer: Lord you know how hard it is for us to leave friends and family whom we love when they are continually choosing to sin. We have tried to help, we have prayed, but now you are telling us we must separate from them so that You can do what needs to be done. Help us to love them and let them go for a time so that You can work. Help us to welcome them back when the time is right. We know Your ways are best and we ask You to help us trust You more. Continue to guide us into right choices for our own lives. Amen.