Make
Straight Paths For Your Feet
Therefore lift your drooping hands and
strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what
is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness
without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain
the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and
through it many become defiled. See to it that no one becomes like Esau, an
immoral and godless person, who sold his birthright for a single meal. You know
that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he
found no chance to repent, even though he sought the blessing with tears.
Hebrews 12:12-17
Have we “sold out” the way Esau did? Has the
lure of wealth, power, prestige, position, security, style, or the approval and
praise of others led us to barter away God’s riches for a
single meal? Esau sought to change his father’s mind and gain the
inheritance he had forfeited by his duplicity, but he could not set right the
damage he had done. He had to live with his decision. Neither can we turn back
the clock and undo the wrong we have done to ourselves and to others.
Although the past is irrevocable, there can be
a new day before us, filled with new chances, new opportunities, and new
expectations. God will not redo the past, but when we repent He can and will
forgive us and set us on a new path.
The Lord can give us opportunities to show how
we have truly repented of the decisions of the past and how much we long to
serve Him the decisions to come. He will never mention the deeds by which we
have shamed others and ourselves; they are forgiven and forgotten forever. God
will give us a place to begin again – to love, to serve, to touch others
profoundly and eternally for His sake. This demonstrates the greatness of our
heavenly Father’s forgiving love to us.
God’s forgiveness is
the door to a new beginning.
Our Daily
Bread
–