Monday, August 7, 2017

August 7, 2017 - Just Do It! (Be careful)


Saturday my daughter Faith was playing in an AAU basketball tourney and their team was on a fast break… she looked ahead and made a pass to her teammate running the lane. The pass made it through and it looked great; it was a high risk play that brought a lot of cheers. Right after that they found themselves in a very similar situation and this time Faith went for the same exact pass; yet this time the defense was ready and stole it. This was a case where the old phrase (“went to the well once too often”) comes into play… it is a situation where the passer got greedy for more.

 

I’m sure in Faith’s mind she thought it went well the first time, so why not try again. I’m sure she enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment, so why not try again. And to be honest, my view when I was coaching was to encourage “going for it until they stop it.” Sounds a lot like Nike saying, “Just do it!”

 

In life we tend to get “greedy” as well. Obviously we have greed when it comes to material things; my pastor refers to things where one should be enough and we say we just want “one… more.” Yet this spirit of greed is also a problem in leading us down paths of sin…

 

Think about how sin takes control. We make a decision to just give something a try, even though we know it is wrong. Then if we don’t see the immediate negative consequence we “go to the well again.” And eventually, we find we went to the well once too often as sin wreaks its havoc in our lives.  I love the old phrase “sin will take you farther than you planned go, keep you longer than you planned to stay, and cost you more than you planned to spend.”

 

“Just once” quickly turns to “just one more time” when we allow sin to have a foot in the door of our lives. Sin makes us greedy for more. Early on the enemy whispers, “Just do it!” in our ears and we are lured in…

 

This week’s devo is a long way around to encouraging, or better yet, pleading that you “do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on… Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.” (Provers 4:14-15, 26-27)

 

 

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