Up or Down

 
Look at this ladder. Is it an Up ladder or a Down ladder? It can be either, can't it? The rungs on a ladder are neutral. They are merely steps that facilitate whichever direction we have chosen to go.

The events in our lives are like rungs on a ladder. Some events are joyful and some are painful. But the events themselves have no power to determine our destination, just as rungs on a ladder cannot determine whether we go up or down.

We decide whether each event leads us upward toward God or downward into darkness. The agonizing loss that one person uses as a step toward addiction, propels another toward God. The painful childhood that one uses as a step downward, is for another the rung that brings them up toward a heavenly Father. We become the people God created us to be when we stop blaming the ladder.

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Roadblocks

 

The road is dark and winding, but you are sure you're headed in the right direction. You can't wait to get there. You've heard about it from others and you want to get there with all your heart. 
You press the accelerator and WHAM! You hit something. The car stops dead in the road.

Rather than find out what you hit, you turn your head and stare out the side window into the dark. You press the accelerator harder. Nothing. You put the car in reverse, back up a few inches, then plow forward again. WHam! Same thing. Something is in the way and you don't know what it is. You're not going anywhere.

What would you do?

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 SIN.

It's a tiny word with a big ugly feel to it. We hardly hear it anymore. It has become unfashionable. Even from the pulpit, we rarely hear it mentioned. We have decided it is harsh and sounds judgmental. It might offend people and above all, we must not offend.

Satan loves this line of thought. He invented it. Because he knows something that even most professing Christians don't know: Repentance is the doorway to freedom.

Unconfessed sin is a roadblock on our path to spiritual wholeness. We slam into it as we try to draw closer to God, but we refuse to look at it. We come up with every excuse Satan can provide to avoid confessing it to God. 

"It was a long time ago."
"It wasn't that big a deal."
"Lots of people do that."
"I'm not perfect. Everyone makes mistakes."

We turn our heads and refuse to see what is in the way of our moving toward God. We get frustrated with our progress and add guilt to the equation. So we press the accelerator on Bible reading, prayer time, or church attendance to see if that will overcome the obvious stall in our path to God. Nothing happens.

One of Satan's favorite tricks for Christians is to convince us that we don't need to continue to repent. We are saved from our sin, so everything is fine from here on. Right?

Wrong. We may be saved from the eternal penalty of our sin, but we must maintain the continuing freedom from it here on earth. When we mess up (and we will), confession to God and repentance restores us once more to that fellowship we long for. Unconfessed sins are like bricks in a wall between us and God. HE didn't build the wall; we did. And only we can tear it down through confession and rejection of it.

Have you hit something in the road toward God? Don't turn your head and pretend you don't know what it is. Confess it. God already knows about it and is waiting to cleanse you of it so you can move forward together.

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