FINDING REASONS TO SIN

She said, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen.”  Hosea 2:5b

    It is easy to think idealistically about the sensitivity of others’ consciences. We really believe that once people understand that what they are doing is wrong, that they’re hurting somebody by their actions, they’ll stop and make a course correction.  If only the world were like that!

    Magical thinking ends when I look at my own track record.  How many times have I justified something in my life by saying, “Maybe this is wrong but….”  What followed was the list of benefits to me personally.  It’s as if I justified folly through making a pros and cons list.  What I gained by giving in far outweighed what I would have had to sacrifice to make a change.  Oftentimes, change was too frightening but that was only because I didn’t know how to take God’s hand.

    God speaks to Hosea and tells Him that Israel justifies her harlotry because of what she receives from her “lovers.” How she benefits by her flirtations makes it seem like a pretty good deal.  Other gods are making her prosper, for a time.  Other gods make her feel good about herself.  What causes an adrenaline rush can often become the barometer for right and wrong.  Many a conscience has been skewed by a soul in delight.

    God will have to make sure that Israel’s way is thwarted, that her pleasures are short-lived.  He will do whatever it takes for His children to be in relationship with Him.  If it means marking our pathway with sharp stones, so be it.  His nature is not to punish but to restore.  His nature is not to withhold, but to bless.  His nature is not to ruin a good time, but to overwhelm His children with pleasures this world can not duplicate.  They are not as easy to put our hands on, that is true.  They come by way of fidelity and discipline but when given, a child of God is left in a stunned sense of wonder.  One is never sorry He rejected the counterfeit and waited for the real thing.

I will face decisions today that offer an instant payoff.  Let me take the high road to the North, the one that leads to your mountaintop.  In Jesus’ name, Amen