Look carefully then how you walk

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ Ephesians 5:15-21

As I wrote this, my back hurts. It has been hurting since the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is slowly getting better but it still hurts. I hurt it Friday while Daniel and I were decorating the yard for Christmas. I was walking back to the garage to put up a ladder and I tripped over a tree root slightly turning my ankle and in the process wrenched my back. Now if I had been paying attention to Paul and looked carefully as I walked, maybe I would have seen the root and saved my back.

We tend to go through life this way. Not really paying attention to what is going on around us or how our actions affect our walk with the Lord. We fall back on saying “I’ve done this hundreds of times and nothing bad has happened. I’ll stop if it gets to be a problem.” But you know, I have walked over that particular piece of our yard for over 19 years and all it took was once to hurt my back. You can go out drinking and drive home hundreds of time and nothing bad happened and then one time you have an accident and suddenly lives are changed or ended forever.

You may hang out with friend from before you became a Christian and nothing happens and then a fight breaks out maybe someone pulls a gun and once again lives changed forever. Maybe you flirt with the cute person in the office and it goes on and nothing happens and then something does and lives are changed. Maybe you just click on that porn site every once in a while, no harm done and then you are caught and lives are changed.

When we choose to go against God’s teaching, maybe nothing happens for a long while but at sometime something goes wrong and your life is changed forever. A trust is broken. Someone is hurt. You are diagnosed with a horrible disease and lives are changed. God’s rules are not there to punish us; they are there to protect us. They are there to move us from the old life of sin to a new life in Him.

So walk carefully. Keep an eye out for the tree roots in your life. They are there just waiting to trip us up.

Have a blessed day,

David