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A couple of days ago, I saw a car bearing a sign which read, "God Bless My Way." While I did not have the opportunity to meet the owner of the vehicle, and therefore cannot attest to his or her intent, the phrase struck me as very telling of the general condition of modern Christianity.
"God bless my way." That is a common approach to God nowadays. All too often, God is expected to bail His children out of financial difficulties, even though we have borrowed and spent themselves into a debt they cannot pay. He is expected to heal our bodies, after we have abused them with overeating and lack of sleep and proper nourishment. He is expected to keep the children of believers from venturing into a life of sin, while their parents hypocritically do their own thing between church services.
God is expected to "bless our way," even though He has already made it clear that His ways are not our ways. While God's children neglect their duties in virtually every aspect of their lives, they still count on God to go the extra mile for them.
God's people do not need Him to eliminate their debt, we need to change our mind set from one of spend-beyond-your-means slavery to debt to one of spend-within-your-means service to God. God's people do not need Him to miraculously reduce their waistline, we need to reduce our food intake.
God is saying, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Christianity has remade God to fit in with our wants and desires. Who is serving who here?
It is time to stop asking God to bless our way, and say to Him, "Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell."
Only when we walk with the Lord, abiding in His will, will we receive the blessing of God, for, as the psalmist David said, "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies" (Psa. 25:10). Amen and amen.
David M. McNabb
Editor & Bible Guy