I am sure most of us can look back on our lives and pin point a few instances where we made major mistakes. If not a few, then at least one, because no one is absolved from making life blunders. Now, although God is merciful and gracious we cannot deliberately exploit His love by continually making poor decisions and then simply stretching out our hands for grace. Remember God’s word states:

Romans 9:15-16 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

Knowing that God can and will at times withhold mercy and realizing that man is a fail being who is prone to making mistakes. My question to you is, How Careful Are You? Now that we know that these things can and will happen, are you using this knowledge to walk more uprightly and circumspect. I can tell you from personal experience that there were times I let my guard down and heaped upon myself problems which could have been prevented if only I was more careful.

Not even old testament individuals were pardoned from making major missteps:

  • Eve Picked the forbidden fruit and look where it got us, the stain of sin entered the world. (Genesis 2:16–17)
  • Moses was disbarred from entering the promise land simply because he struck the rock when he supposed to speak to the rock (Numbers 20:8-12).
  • King Saul was dethroned the moment he returned with spoils (sheep, cattle, lambs) from battle when God told him to destroy everything and bring nothing back with him (1 Samuel 15).

But what was so wrong with their actions? Eve only picked a fruit, Moses used this hand instead of his mouth, Saul brought back great loot for his people. Come on now, what could be so wrong with these simple actions that a loving God could have taken such drastic action. Well on the surface it looked simple, but deep down where it matters we can see all of them disobeyed God. This is where it can make us or break us, –  are we obeying or disobeying God!

Disobedience is where God draws the line in the sand. So much so that He is willing to separate Himself from His first daughter (Eve), stop the leader of a nation (Moses) from going forward and dethroning King Saul and replacing him with another King (King David). God will go at lengths to show us how serious he is about sin and willing to make examples of key figures in order for us to learn and be careful.

My dear friends, my urging today is not to become complacent and take the love of our Father for granted. Let us learn to follow His instructions and follow it carefully and take nothing for granted. Yes, our God is a loving, kind and a merciful Father. But he is also a God of wrath and vengeance (Romans 12:19). As believers we must desire to know all aspects of our Heavenly Father and that entails what makes Him happy and what displeases Him.

Therefore, today I ask that we all take a moment and do some self-reflection. Ask ourselves what situations are we taking for granted, or not being careful in. Are we treating things lightly when we shouldn’t? Are there grey areas in our Christian walk which we have left alone for too long? Have you become lukewarm in your Christian walk?

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions or any variant of it, then now is a good time to put an action plan in place. Acknowledge God for help and develop your action plan for improvement (Read Gods word more, pray more, etc), purpose to be more careful in every situation, and build some safeguards into your life. By doing this we will make right decisions and as we all know, if we Improve the Quality of our decisions then we will Improve the Quality of our Life!

I leave you with the following two scriptures as a reminder to us all:

Acts 20:31 (NIV) –  So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

Revelation 3:3 (KJV) – Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Let’s learn to be careful and stay in our spiritual swim lanes. For coming out of it only brings trouble and heartache.

PS: I am feeling led to also reference one of my previous blogs post as a compliment to this one. Have a read of – “Just Now…!!”