Striving to Stay on the Path

Why is it so easy to get sidetracked?

I'm reminded of Christian on his journey to the Celestial City. Why is it so easy to get off the path and so hard to stay on that straight and narrow path? I often find myself so conflicted. I want to be on that path! I can't do it alone though. Why do I think I can?

God is the only one who can help me stay on that path. Yet I turn from Him more than I turn to Him. Why is that? Why is it so hard to love someone that gave His son for me? God is holy, He is perfect, He is all-knowing, eternal, all-powerful. He is the way, the truth and the life. Yet I turn to self, I turn to this world.

Sin.

I can't get away from it! I want to but I can't.

I think that spending a few minutes in God's word every morning is going to do the trick. I think going to a Bible study is going to help. Going to church and hearing a good sermon is gonna make the difference. Yet, so often it goes in one ear and out the other.

Francis Chan says, "It confuses us when loving God is hard. Shouldn't it be easy to love a God so wonderful? When we love God because we feel we should love Him, instead of genuinely loving out of our true selves, we have forgotten who God really is. It may sound 'un-Christian' to say that on some mornings I don't feel like loving God, or I just forget to. But I do. In our world, where hundreds of things distract us from God, we have to intentionally and consistently remind ourselves of Him."

I hesitate to write posts like this. Why? I don't want to sound preachy, or like I think I have some kind of knowledge that others don't. Really, I just want to be honest. Let you know that, hey, I struggle every day! I struggle to love a God who is pefectly holy. If you're honest with yourself, I'm guessing you all do to. If you don't, I'd love to hear what helps you but for me, as much as I want to be loving God every second of every day, I don't!

Where am I going with all this? I'm bringing it back to Scripture Memorization. In January I memorized Proverbs 31. Then that was done and I stopped. I am not writing God's word on my heart the way I should be. No, I don't think that memorizing scripture is going to solve my problems as a Christian, but it is one more thing to get the focus of my mind off of the things of this world and focused on God.

So once again I am going to challenge you all to memorize scripture with me. This time I am going to memorize Psalm 139. This is my favorite psalm. It was a huge comfort to me in a very difficult time in my life. The title in my Bible above this psalm is "God's Perfect Knowledge of Man." WOW! Amazing isn't it!

I'll be honest, this is take 2 for me. I tried this about a year ago and I never finished the whole thing.

I think the best way is to just jump right in and memorize a verse a day. When I spread it out, I end up just putting it off. Since tomorrow is March 1st, I will start with verse one and do a verse a day. Hope you will join me and if that is too fast for you, just go at your own pace.

This time I am not going to repost all the verses, since I'm guessing you all have your own Bible. Feel free to email me and let me know if you are joining me, we can be an encouragement to eachother.