Standing at the crossroads.(How to follow God's will)

Jeremiah 6:16 says, "And the Lord says, Stand at the place where the roads cross, ask where the old way is and ask where the good way is and walk it. If you walk the good way you will find rest for yourselves."

For anyone like myself that is constantly asking "How do you hear God?" or "How do I know what God's will for my life is?" or "How do I know what God wants me to do in this situation?" The answer is right there in Jeremiah 6:16. Just ask him what the old way is and what's the good way and take the good way.

The road we are walking as Christians is not a highway my friends, this is a straight up neighborhood with cross streets every 1/4th of a mile or so. It's like traveling downtown, and you have to stay on Main ST. the whole time. You can't get tempted to go down Travis. And it's difficult because sometimes it seems like it's so many gray areas. This is where that scripture comes in handy.

For all those like myself who are fairly new to this completely dedicated way of following Christ, and which most of us are, because even those of us who were raised in the church, have lived a life completely opposite of the life God has wanted for us, so we are fairly new to intentionally attempting to do this the right way. So again for all of you who are like myself and new in this whole situation, you will start to notice that God will spin your life into reverse cycles, and give you a chance to be in similar situations but make better choices and decisions. Look at your situation that you are in right now, and examine the patterns. I guarantee it looks very excruciatingly similar to one or more previous situations.

Then ask God, "Lord what is the old way, how did I handle this in the past, what choice would I have made before knowing you?" After that the answer should be obvious, run straight and do the complete opposite of what you did before, because if the situation is coming up again in your life, it's probably because you did not do it right the first time. Think about it. These patterns happen in our lives because we don't really learn our lessons, our hearts have to change after a situation, not just our minds. If your heart changes you won't let that pattern come up again because you will be in a place where that pattern is not.

Guys and Dolls, if you are constantly creating the same types of friendships or relationships with people, you will end up at some point at a crossroads similar to ones before where you have to make a decision that will change things and it will be so uncomfortable, or leave things as is, which will be comfortable for the time being, but it will be one plush walk straight to the torture chamber.

If your affinity for money keeps bringing you into similar situations where you will ultimately have to make high risk decisions that seem to be unstable or unethical for instant gratification, you might want to choose the path that you would not have chosen before. You know the one that doesn't get you caught in a a get rich quick scheme that leaves you and your family in debt. Or the one that doesn't involve you sitting at a slot machine feeding your cash into a metal box.

If your horrible communication skills and guarded heart causes you to ruin potentially great friendships and relationships, and you are brought to the same crossroads where it's either talk it out with complete honesty or allow preconceived notions to affect your actions, then choose the opposite of what you would normally do and watch your life blossom

Or the opposite, if you are like me you wear your heart on your sleeves and feed your emotions out like an ATM. Try turning it over to God and allowing him to work things out and change hearts, don't try to throw a curve ball at people with your honesty with the intentions of manipulating situations based off of your emotions.

Well good kind people I'm out, gotta make the choice to have a productive day!!

Cherbear