Straight Paths Heal Wounds

Straight Paths Heal Wounds

Hebrews 12: ¹² Lift up your tired hands, then, and strengthen your trembling knees! ¹³ Keep walking on straight paths, so that the lame foot may not be disabled, but instead be healed.

 

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After experimenting with “fun” everyone else was having, I noticed my life was not getting any better. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse. I sat on the on my couch and made a decision. “I need to get my life in order” I said to myself.

 

• I felt tired from trying things that were supposed to make me “happy” but found them to be temporary.
• I was trembling from fear of the future, because the “fun” was not addressing any problem I was facing.
• I knew in my heart I needed to do something different.

 

Paul, the assumed writer, begins his final words with some sage advice. “Instead of being tired and scared, why not follow GOD who provides a straight path to HIM and HIS power?” is the implied question in his statement. He knew only GOD can provide the answer.

 

My Observations:

• Only GOD can give me rest when I am weary.
• Only GOD can heal my woundedness when I am hurt.
• Only GOD can provide a straight path instead of the wandering crooked path I easily get on.

 

True success comes from GOD. I mean, HE holds the criteria for what a peaceful life looks like. Unfortunately, I try things that cause me to lose that peace. I seek the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These things take me away from GOD. BUT GOD brings me back.

 

With gentle correction and wiping my tears away, GOD shows me how much HE cares for me and heals me of life’s wounds. HE provides a path that is straight. I gladly follow HIS way.

 

Challenge

• What is the “straight path” the writer is speaking about?
• Have you ever wandered away from what GOD wants you to do and found yourself in more trouble?
• Will you seek the answers from GOD instead of investing in what the world will have you do today?

Who Wants Pain?

Proverbs 20: ³⁰ Blows and wounds scrub away evil,
    and beatings purge the inmost being.

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Sitting by the window was probably the worst thing I could do. I would stare outside, longing to be in the fresh air, then like a clap of thunder, the teacher would inevitably call me back into reality. “Why do I have to go to school anyway?” I said in fourth grade.

• Sometimes I feel like giving up and taking the easy route.
• Sometimes I want vacation instead of work.
• Sometimes I desire resting in a meadow of laziness rather than plowing a field of work.

I decided not to go to attend class when I went to college. My grades suffered and I was told I may not graduate. I had to buckle down and study. It was painful. I decided to start going to school and found it to actually be easier than I thought.

• GOD has shown me that I need to be disciplined in order to stay on HIS path.
• GOD has shown me that I sometimes need a whooping in order to get focused.
• GOD has shown me that nothing in life comes easy and my focus should be HIM.

Bumps and bruises in life teach me that I need GOD every step of the way. HE takes my evil behavior and turns it into righteousness by allowing a little turmoil in my life. My desire gets purged and I can then praise HIM.

• Are you going through a beating in life right now?
• Have you ever done evil in your life?
• Can you change your course and follow GOD the way HE wants you to follow HIM?
• Will you accepts the blows and wounds as a method of purging instead of punishing?

Remembering can hold me back

Philippians 3: ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

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There he was, the bully who sat on me causing me to scrape my arm. I still had the scar after ten years but now I was ready for him. I was now muscular and just as big as him. “He’s going to apologize whether he likes it or not” I said to myself. 

When I walked up to him, he greeted me with a hug and the biggest smile. He was glad to see “old friends who love GOD.” Man, I guess I can’t pummel him today.

• When I hold on to the past I get stuck in the pain.
• When I replay history I get hysterical.
• When I go back to ancient times I wind up with agony.

Many people have messed up in their life in their actions toward me and I have messed up many times in my actions toward them. I have said things and done things that are downright hurtful and so have they. GOD wants me to focus on the prize instead of the problem.

• When I look to what GOD is doing I can forget what people have done.
• When I look to what GOD is doing I can forget when I have failed.
• When I look to what GOD is doing I can forget how the pain feels.

Funny thing about memory, the less it’s used the more I forget. In other words when I purposefully spend my time filling my memory with great thoughts, I don’t have time to fill it with pain. I can then replay the great moments and not replay the “not so great moments.”  In fact the more great moments I can replay the less “stuck” I become.

GOD has given me a gift, namely HIS SON. I now have hope and I can look at the future with a positive outlook no matter the circumstance.

• Are you holding onto the past?
• Are you blinded by what happened instead of looking at how GOD is changing the situation?
• Do you realize GOD is not constantly tormenting you about how you messed up?
• Can you consider for a moment GOD has love for you AND “that” person?