Day 2806 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Isaiah 59:2 NIV

Our way or the highway. That's how it's supposed to be, right? Well, at least that's a message we tend to hear rather frequently. "It's my way or the highway." Come along and go along and enjoy the ride that I'm taking or get lost and leave me alone. Tell me I'm doing good or don't tell me anything. Pat me on the back or pack your bags. Bottom line is that I'm doing this my way "come hell or highwater".

Well guess what folks, in all our arrogance we forget that hell is coming. And it's coming for all of us. And doing this our way is what's gained us a first-class ticket all the way there. Our way has earned for us all the misery we could never imagine and yet continue to pretend doesn't exist.

It does.

It does exist. You know why hell exists, because wrongs must be punished. Arrogance and pride must be humbled. Our selfishness has to be leveled. Our desire to spit in God's face and ignore His truth and trample His Word must be righted, because He is righteous. He is just. He is King, we are not. And if He ever gives sway to our desires, our preferences, our waywardness, our sins, our broken lives, then He wouldn't be God.

The fact of the matter is that He alone is on the throne and for far too long we've lived as if we were at least sharing that seat. We've lived like we could actually debate with Him, like we can somehow convince the jury of eternity to allow us entry to Heaven even should God say, "I never knew you. Away from me."

We've lived our lives with this absolute disregard to that possibility. We've pretended that we could have our cake and eat it too. We've gotten it in our minds that we can live without restraint or responsibility while we're here and still end up in Heaven, if Heaven even exists at all. And I think that's the problem. We still have a gross tendency to give gravity to doubt. We still listen to the devil telling us that there's no cost, no consequence, no punishment awaiting our deeds.

And that's all we want to hear as it fuels up our deceitful hearts to propel us along this journey of 'doing it our way."

As we discussed yesterday, our way and God's way couldn't be more different. His way is righteous, just, faithful, honest, compassionate, loving, kind, merciful, gracious, forgiving, self-controlled, upright, and perfect. Our way is laden with foolishness, error, mistake, arrogance, pride, vanity, lies, distrust, doubt, malice, anger, greed, lust, weakness, immorality, depravity, pleasure, and every other evil that we can possibly find.

And so there comes a point where we have to decide where we go from here. Do we keep doing this all our way and simply expect God to give us a thumbs up? Do we keep ignoring Him and yet also demand He be okay with whatever we choose to do? At some point the truth proves unavoidable and demands that we decide whether or not we'll continue to ignore it or to change our lives to adhere to it. At some point, we must choose between our way and God's way because we cannot walk both paths at once as they'll continue to diverge forever.

What we all need to understand is just what it is that our way has given us, and what it will lead to in the end. Our way seems amazing. It's perfect. It's everything we want because we're the ones who have picked it. We're the ones who have planned it. We're the ones who have daydreamed about every desire and cherry-picked every single goal and idol and craving that we want our lives to have. But, in all of our foolishness, we fail to look beyond the surface. We fail to consider the consequences.

We knowingly choose to live our lives as if we can do nothing wrong, and that anything bad that happens must therefore come from somewhere or someone else.

And thus creates the distrust that leads to a widened divide between us and God.

We blame Him. We shake our fists and rage against His truth as that must be what makes our lives hurt. After all, we've convinced ourselves that we can't do anything wrong, and that our way has no consequences. So if our lives aren't as perfect as we think they should be, then God must not like us, must not want to see us happy, must have turned away and left us to figure it all out on our own. After all, we’ve been telling that much for years. So maybe He just got tired of hearing us tell Him how much better we could do. And since we’re so good at being in control, then any disappointment must come from Him refusing to give.

No.

We caused our problems. Our way led to our suffering. Our desires left us disappointed. Our choice to rage against God caused us to plot our course to everything we want and nothing that He asks of us. Our adamancy to do this our way has forced us to ignore His way, and that's why there's this distance between us and this God who is supposed to bring peace and joy and hope. When living our way has left our lives void of hope and joy and peace, we think that God left.

No, my friends, we left.

We left Him. We walked away. We turned our backs and hardened our hearts and chose the world rather than His plans. We chose to live as if we could find something better than His promises. We chose to believe that His rules only hindered rather than helped. We chose to ignore self-control and responsibility as those just don't really hold much benefit in 'our way'.

We left.

We asked God to leave us alone, and yet we get angry when He does. We told Him to get lost, yet we're dissatisfied that we're the ones who've ended up lost. We made our choices and insisted that He play along, our way, and we remain confused as to why He hasn't.

It's because our way is everything He had to watch His Son die to overcome. Our way is what drove the nails. Our way twisted the thorns. Our way rolled the stone, sealed the grave, and walked away with a smile on our face thinking we could finally get back to doing what we wanted without this Man speaking against it.

"For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil."

Humanity has become everything God hates because we've stopped caring about what He loves. Our way has invited God to either play along or get lost. We've told Him that these are our lives and that we're going to live them our way, and that we just don't care what He or anyone else may think. And all along the way, we've forgotten that age-old adage that tells us to "be careful what you wish for."

Friends, God didn't turn His back on us. He didn't stop being loving and kind and compassionate. He never gave up on the plans and promises He has. He never once stopped caring about us. He simply did what we asked of Him. He turned His face from watching us go against Him. He let us go chase after sin. He gave us freewill to live as His enemies, and we've done just that.

So what do we expect? If someone is constantly ignoring you, won't you eventually stop trying? If someone does everything they can to hurt you, wouldn't you sever the relationship? If there's someone in your life that brings nothing but pain and heartache, don't you walk away?

Our sins, our foolishness, our arrogance, and our pride have all invited God to get out of our way and to leave us alone. We made this bed. We earned this suffering. We don't deserve to be heard, to be loved, to be saved. And yet, God's ways aren't our ways. While we would walk away, sever the relationships, give up hope, and turn to bitterness, God offers mercy. He leaves the door open for us to come back if we ever get tired of 'our way'. He still wants only the best for us, He just won't get in the way of our thinking we know of something better than what He offers.

Friends, our way sucks. On the surface it's fun. It's exciting. It's filled with everything we want, and yet, just below that surface lies more disappointment and frustration and anger and misery than we could ever imagine. Don't believe me? Just look back at your life and all the mistakes you've made so far. What did they give you? What did those errors bring you? How did you benefit from all those things you now regret?

My whole point is that our way will never lead to anything. It will only lead us further away from God and place our hope in something that cannot last or save or heal or bring peace. We have to stop living like we know better than God because we've got a perfect record of proving every single day just how wrong we can be. We have made more mistakes than we care to imagine all in the effort to do this our way.

Maybe it's time to jump off this sinking ship and try it His way. After all, His way is the only way that leads to something better than what we deserve.

Make no mistake, our sins form the bricks with which this wall between us and God was erected and continues to be built. He will help us get it out of the way so that we can be restored to hope and peace and the promise of His eternal salvation. But we have to stop building. We have to stop running. We have to ditch the arrogance and pride and let God be God and do this His way. If we don’t, we’ll remain separated from all the good that He is. Not by His choice, but by our own.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold