What path are your decisions taking you?
I have met a lot of people like Jonah in the Old Testament in my life, and truthfully so have you. They are easy to spot, they are the ones are openly running away from God, racing as fast as they can in the opposite direction. They know that they have rejected God’s calling, they know that they are disobedient, and they can’t run away far enough.
However on the other hand I have meet far more people who just kind of do the "Christian Sidestep" from the will of God. They, like those who run from God openly, know that they are out of God’s will, out of His plan for their life, but they do it in a little more ‘sophisticated’ manner. In a method they believe that perhaps you and God won’t notice. Of course deep inside they know that while maybe you won't notice their sin, that God does.
They still attend church, talk about spiritual things, even give to the church, and perhaps even serve in the nursery or so other area at church. However deep down inside they know they are running under cover; living with secret (or not so secret) sin, rationalizing their sin and their conduct, giving an excuse for their Sins.
They say things like ‘nobody is perfect’, ‘I am facing this temptation, and I just can’t seem to overcome it’ they get to the point where they rationalize their sin, by professing that ‘God understands, he understands the difficulty I am facing, the financial issues I am facing, he understands the needs I have that my spouse is not fulfilling, the stress I am under’ etc. etc. Or they emphasize the good things they have done, stressing that they a ‘NICE’ person. All the time, deep within their soul they know the truth that they are refusing to obey God’s commands and are running away from His will for their life.
They have stepped out of God’s will to do their will, in their way, in their time, all the while claiming to be covered by God’s grace. They think that by going to church, by giving money, by appearing to others to be ‘nice’ and to appear to be serving God, that they are not that bad, that they are somewhat obedient, so God will overlook their non-obedience in all the other areas of their life.
What they chose to overlook is that the price is expensive, the consequences are far more than they realize, far more than they can pay. The amazing thing is that when/if they were to stop and look down the road and ask themselves where does this sin take me? What I have discovered is that, they tend to rationalize it and pretend that things are going to turn out better than they will. When the truth is, eventually it leads you to the place where you are thanking God for the sin that you commit. Eventually you forget that while God is a loving God, He is also a just God; and as Jonah can attest to, the longer you run from God, the longer you refuse to obey, the higher the price.
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