“In the paths of the wicked lie thorns and snares, but he who guards his soul stays far from them” (22:5). God’s plans for us cannot be frustrated by any external force. We can, however, reject these plans. We can refuse God. If we do refuse God; if we choose instead to go our own way; then it will not go well with us. Even if we become outwardly successful by worldly standards, it will not be well with our souls. Life with God can be hard because we are living ‘against the current’ of our human nature and against the flow of worldly life. This is in addition to the hardships that are common to all people. Harder still though is life without God. Not only does living without God deny him his claim on our lives, it also means going against the grain of our created purpose. Try eating just grass every day. I guarantee it won’t go well with you because you are not a cow or a sheep. You are human and you should live as humans are meant to live. The core part of what it means to be human is to serve God’s purpose and reflect his character. The moment you step outside that purpose you are in danger of doing great harm to yourself. My hope is that, whenever I begin to go astray, I will feel the painful discordance between my choices and my created purpose. Painful symptoms are good if there is something wrong with us. They drive us to seek a remedy for what is wrong.
Ask God to make you more spiritually sensitive.
Read Proverbs 22:1-8
