God's Path Is Straight Sin's Path Is Crooked

In teaching my family this morning we learned about the path that God has for us and the path that sin and Satan have for us.

Proverbs 3:5-8 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.  Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.  It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.

By trusting God we acknowledge that He is in control and ultimately we will turn to His word (The Bible) for advice and teaching.  What our sinful heart wants is to turn towards our own desires and what we think is right.  The problem with turning inwards for instruction is that our flesh (heart) guides us towards what is pleasing and ultimately sinful.  When I asked my children if turning towards God makes our path straight what does a crooked path look like?  My oldest son who is six says that a crooked path is one of sin.  Bingo son!

We also talked about how the doing of sinful things actually makes us physically ill.  I asked my children what they feel like when they know they have done something that is disobedient.  They let me know that their stomachs hurt.  I let them know that if we are not in God's Word that our hearts become hard toward what truth is (The Bible) and that felling of being sick can actually go away.  By having a hard heart our sinful flesh takes over and ultimately replaces God and we no longer fear Him.  I stressed the importance of being in God's Word daily so that our hearts are filled with what He says to follow and so that feeling of sickness will be intensified when we are not doing what God wants.  That intense feeling of sickness should be used to drive us toward God.  And, if we are walking His path and not ours we will have a refreshing feeling in our body at all times.