Day 2430 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Romans 16:18 NIV

If it doesn't line up with Scripture then it's not leading us in the right direction. It really is as simple and difficult as that. You see, God gave us His word to help instruct, correct, rebuke, and lead us along the right path according to His perfect definition of truth. That is why we have to run everything we see and hear through His word. As much as we may enjoy something, if it doesn't match the truth found in the Bible then it simply isn't the truth.

The issue that we run into is that all of us are a bit naive. We all have this inherent hope inside our hearts that everyone around us is good. We truly want to see the best in people. That's what love and kindness does. We want to believe that the people we trust are doing right by us and not taking advantage of that trust. We want to believe that those who are considered teachers and leaders are only worried about doing what's right by those who listen to them.

But that's just not always the case. In a perfect world that may work, but as you can plainly see, this isn't anywhere close to a perfect world! There is more deception and deceit than truth and honesty. It's easier to find someone who's willing to take advantage of others than it is to find someone who is humbly willing to put others first. Greed and pride are some dangerous things and sadly they've become the sole focus of many in this place. And not just outside the church!

The fact is that blindly following someone else without looking into what they say could very well lead us away from God. It's easy to make things sound right. It's easy to twist and mold things to sound like they add up only to cover the real purpose behind it all. Much of the religion we see today is built upon things that have nothing to do with what God calls us to live for. It's built on human ideals and desires rather than what God's word tells us is right.

There's far too much comfort, acceptance, applause, selfishness, and settling in a lot of what we see and hear these days. Those are definitely the things we like as broken humans. We want to hear that we're doing okay. We want to hear that following God will lead to nothing but the fulfillment of every dream our hearts desire. We want to remain comfortable where we are without having to move or change. We want to be praised when we do something good and be left alone when we slip up. We want to be catered to, but in all honesty, we should know better than that.

Our hearts are deceitful above all things. We don't know what's best. We don't get to decide what's right. We don't have the right or the authority to twist anything to fit what we want because what we want is broken and wicked. So if something affords us the comfort of thinking that we're right then something's wrong. If it allows us to remain where we are thinking that we're doing just fine then we should run because God's calling is for us to grow and mature, not relax and celebrate.

The bottom line is that we're not here to serve human opinions or desires, whether they be ours or someone else's. Sadly there is quite of bit of that out there so we have to look out for it. As they say, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. And any message that leaves us comfortable, makes us proud of who we are, or paints us as the heroes is definitely not a message that we should waste any time listening to because those things don't match up with the Gospel.

This is about our desperate need for Christ's salvation, not our prosperity or pride. Never forget that. And please don't let anyone else make you forget it either!

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