daily devotional

You and I are on a journey. Our entire lifetime is a journey. We’re never staying the same, everything is always changing. Even when we feel stuck, life is moving on and we’re on a path to somewhere.

At the end of the day I like to give myself perspective by asking “Pamela, if you repeated today’s decisions everyday for the next 5 years, where would your life be?” What if you asked yourself that question at the end of this day? Ahhhhh, the gift of perspective to see your own trajectory.

The bible talks about trajectory, the direction we’re going. It tells us there are two ways and we should choose wisely. In Deuteronomy 30: 15 God says “I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.” And then God gives us the free will to choose our path in life. He says ‘I have given you life, I have great plans for you, but you choose for yourself how you want to live.’

I know personally I’ve chosen wrong a few times. Sometimes out of defiance, but typically out of habit. Somewhere along the way I just stopped thinking about why I do what I do and I created a rut. I repeated the same actions over and over again, never stopping to question where my actions were taking me. The thing about a rut is, it’s hard to see where you’re going. As you dig in deeper with repeated actions, you go a little deeper, things get a little darker, and you no longer have a vision for where you’re going.

My ruts were once financial ruts. I became accustom to buying it because I wanted it, certain I would somehow magically have the money to pay for it at some future date when life all worked out. My ruts were my health as I grew lazy and didn’t take the medication the doctor said would save my life. I played Russian roulette with my own future and hid it from everyone. My ruts were my self confidence as I ate another doughnut, drank another diet coke, and snuck the brownies in the closet. I felt like crap, one because I was eating like crap, but two because I couldn’t stand the person I saw in the mirror.

Ruts come in all forms. They are grooves we wear that rob us of our vision. We dig in deeper, life grows darker and we just keep doing the same old thing because it’s what is easy and familiar. Ruts look like habits that wreck havoc in our lives, while they seduce us into believing just one more time it’s okay. Ruts look like shame, guilt and regret as we feel powerless to change directions.

Down here in the ruts of life is where the enemy works on our mind. He convinces us we will never change. He tells us there’s nothing more for us. He taunts you with reminders of your shortcomings and wrong choices as if you’re broken and incapable of a different direction. But I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, the devil is a liar from hell. Why are you entertaining his lies? Why are you allowing your mind to be filled with his nonsense? Understand where that guilt and shame comes from, that’s straight from hell and your ruts are just digging you closer to it.

God has set before you today a choice; life or death. Prosperity or destruction. The enemy is rooting hard for destruction, but please know that the creator of the universe, the Lord of Lords, God almighty is personally rooting for your prosperity. He’s leaning in and watching you close, just hoping today you choose the right path. He’s been desperately waiting to guide you out of that rut and onto the path that leads you to the life he created you for, but you first have to choose it. God’s not into magically teleporting you onto the right path. Nope, but he sure is into guiding the seeking soul out of a rut and onto the right path.

God doesn’t wipe away our financial debt the moment we want out of it. He doesn’t make that extra 50 pounds just disappear. He doesn’t magically fix our relationships overnight. He doesn’t rescue us from the mess we’ve created without us getting some of it on us. But he is faithful to give us the strength to work right along side him and get our lives back on the path that takes us to the good plans he prepared for us.

But if you’re like me, you like to pretend everything is okay. Somehow it’s all going to work out. That’s what they call faith right? Oh but how dangerous it is to continue in our rut assuming somehow it’s going to fix itself. No honey, continuing harmful habits, neglecting your responsibility and avoiding the truth isn’t faith … that’s stupid. Has the enemy been wrecking your life in your own stupidity? Are you heading straight to destruction if you keep making these same choices? Where is the path you’re on leading?

The path of destruction or the path of prosperity?

Destruction is where all the good God has planned for you can never happen. It’s where you’re stuck in a life far short of what you were created for. It’s where you feel powerless and hopeless to change the things that need to change, so you surrender, you give in and give up. You settle for what there is instead of what there could be. You buy into the lie that you’re simply not good enough, you’re no longer worthy, and this is just how life will be.

But there is also the path to prosperity. Prosperity is where you grow and get better. It’s where you make a decision. A daring decision to step into the BIG life you were created for and stop giving up on yourself. It’s where you partner with God in action and attitude and do everything you can to live up to your potential. This is where you buy into the truth that you were created for more, you are capable of more, and you are worthy of more.

Jesus teaches us about the two paths in Matthew 7: 13 & 14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

There are many destructive choices you could make today. They’re the easy choices. Buy it because you want it, eat it because it looks good, say it because you feel it, make sure you check in often with your feelings as your guide, and honey if you don’t feel like doing it, don’t do it. And you dig deeper and deeper, never seeing where you’re going. Where you’re going is destruction. You’re going to a dark place where at the end of the day you don’t feel good and at the end of the road you don’t even recognize yourself any more.

That is the popular choice today. Most will be choosing what’s easiest. But God is speaking clearly to you right now, he’s urging you to look at where the path is leading. You were never created to journey on a dark rut. You were created for a narrow road that leads to life. That narrow road is paved with one right choice after another. It’s not easy. You will deny your feelings and choose faith. Faith that God has more for you than a life of debt and doubt. More than a life of shame and shi-taki mushrooms (if you know what I mean). More than a life of misery and barely making it through.

Girl, you were created for so much more. So, so, so much more that it would blow your mind. Get yo’self on the right path! Start today. Where are your choices leading you? What’s the trajectory of your life? Can you see it? If you keep doing what you’re doing everyday for the next 5 years, where will you be? God has a path of prosperity available to you. A way that leads you to getting better, doing better, and living better.

Don’t be tricked by that big ol’ broad path of destruction where so many people are hanging out. Don’t be tricked into walking that path because it’s what you’ve always done, because it’s easier or because it just feels good, tastes good or looks good right now. Look ahead … where’s it leading you? Don’t be fooled.

Imagine examining every step you take today, every choice you make with the trajectory question. Where is this taking me? Is this leading me to life or death? Is this digging the rut deeper or raising me up out of it? Is this leading to destruction or prosperity?

May we just choose better today.