What’s up everyone!! This week, I am taking a break from the names of God. This topic of choosing the right path has been hitting me this week, and so I thought I should give my take on it. Throughout our lives, we have a choice every single day; to follow the crowd, or to be different and follow what we have in our hearts. Sometimes, when we choose to not go with the crowd, we risk being alone in the journey. Now, I could give the super duper Christian rebuttal and say that we are never alone because God is with us. This is very true indeed, but what about the times where we need people to help cheer us on? I am not discouraging depending on God by any means. I am actually promoting it. How? Good question.
God desires us to be in community. When we isolate ourselves, that is when it is easy to be attacked by the enemy. The goal is to have a solid group who are also not ashamed to pursue the dreams that God has placed in their hearts as well. It isn’t worth it to just go along with what the crowd does. You will lose out on so much time and enjoyment. I know because I have experienced it a ton in my life. People pleasing led me to the path of making terrible decisions, which led to regret from those decisions which I knew were wrong. Can anyone relate that? When we operate in our gifts and passions that God created us with, we live a life of total freedom, not even worrying about failing peoples’ expectations. When we dare to be different and find our lane, we don’t have to fear failing. We can depend on God’s grace to pick us up when we fall. He is our fuel that keeps us driving on the path of our callings.
It is interesting why we choose to go with the paths of other people. People pleasing is a reason; wanting to be cool is another huge reason. Why do we think these ways? Well, I believe it is because we were made with a deep deep longing for acceptance. We desire so much to be loved. That in itself isn’t a bad thing. It becomes a negative impact when we look to people to fulfill that longing. No person can but God. We all need to have peace that just because we don’t do what everyone else is doing, does not mean that we are not accepted. We need to have a confidence that our Creator has made us and fully accepts us. Psalm 139 says,” I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this” (Psalm 139:14). This is so huge because in this passage, David is in full thanksgiving that God made him and that God desires us so fervently and passionately.
All in all, Jesus died for us all. God made us perfectly for our calling and purpose. We can’t waste our lives following the crowd, and expect to be joyful and fulfilled. I desire us all to take into account our friends and people we associate with, to see if we are following the path of these people, or are we daring to embark on a journey with Christ that is customized for us. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week.
Love y’all,
Ryan W.