Don’t you hate detours? One minute you are headed down the road making good time and then suddenly, you see orange cones and flashing signs reading, “Detour Ahead.” Usually a detour means going out of the way and wasting time. Sometimes it actually leads you in the opposite direction from where you want to go.
Has your life been detoured?
Whether you know it or not, your life has been detoured. Yesterday, we saw that God created everything good, and the first people God made experienced His presence and joy every day. Unfortunately, most people are not experiencing God like that today. Why? Because something happened that diverted us from God’s path. That something is our own waywardness.
Although God has a path that is perfect, we have an innate desire to go our own way, do our own thing and go off-road from God’s path. The prophet Isaiah put it this way: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way,” (Isaiah 53.6, ESV). The Bible calls this straying away “sin.”
What is sin?
Sin is disobeying and going against God’s direction for our lives. Ultimately, sin is cosmic treason; choosing to live for myself rather than live for the God who created me, knows me and loves me. Originally, sin was an archery term used to describe an archer who missed the bull’s-eye, and in our own way, we each have missed the mark of God’s created design. We have gone astray. We have taken a turn for the worse. We have left God’s path to forge our own way.
The first person God made was Adam. Although Adam knew and walked with God, he chose to disobey Him, and as a result sin came into the world. (Romans 5.12 NLT) says, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.”
Going astray from God
Consequently, all of us now have a selfish and sinful bent to go astray from God. Just like a wheel that’s been knocked out of alignment and now pulls to one side, our natural bent is to pull away from God.
(Romans 3.23 NLT) says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Notice the word “everyone.” That includes you. All of us have chosen to go our own way. Consequently, we live in a world that has lost its way and is headed in the wrong direction, leaving pain and misery in its wake. While following our own path may look good at first, ultimately it only leads to a dead end and isolation from God.
Do you see yourself going in the opposite direction from God? How has your life taken a detour from God’s path? If you think you are going astray, call God and seek for forgiveness. God sees us and He will rescue anyone who are going in the wrong direction.
This blog features an excerpt from our book, Walk With God.
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