Avoiding Rabbit Trails

January 6

Life presents to us enticing rabbit trails. Many who have been “…raised up in the nurture and wisdom and admonition of the Lord,” Ephesians 6:4, have traveled down some of the dark alley-ways the deceitful one—and at times the lust of our own eyes—have opened before us as though they were paths of light.

We have stumbled into the denizens of sin and deprivation. We have made our bed among adulterers, we have drunk the wine of power, we have embraced the riches of earth, and we have enjoyed them. We have sought out the allurements that we knew were forbidden and we have justified ourselves in doing so in ways that defy rationalization.

But the gnawing truth that will not release us is the reality of His un-compromised Word as He gave it to His people in Deuteronomy 13:4 where Moses writes, “It is the Lord your God you must follow and it is Him you must revere. Keep His commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him.” If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we acknowledge that there is no path, but that of obedience, that leads to eternal life.

The apostle reiterates in I John 2:5, 6, this profound reality: “If anyone obeys His Word, God’s love is truly made complete in Him. This is how we know we are in Him—whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” Jesus, even as He faced the cross and asked if there were any other way of salvation, (Matthew 26:39), walked in complete obedience to the Father. So must we.