…about only doing what we want to do

Recently I was reminded of free will — in a specific way.  I will DO whatever I WANT to do!  Someone else (lots of someone else’s) can extol the benefits of reading the Bible in 90 days but if I don’t want to do it, I won’t!  Someone (again, lots of someones) can list all the hazards of smoking (or any other detrimental activity), but if I want to smoke, I’m going to.  No one has to remind me to eat.  No one has to remind me to make cards for the kids at Open Door.  No one has to remind me to go to Senior Game night on Tuesdays or Women’s Bible Study on Wednesdays.  I WANT to do those things!

And then I thought about the Israelites in the desert.  Their every need was taken care of.  The hardest work they had to do was to go outside and pick up enough manna for one day.  Their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out.  Just think about that for a minute.  They walked around the desert for 40 years and their shoes DID NOT wear out!  Then God gave them some rules to live by — how to treat Him and each other so that life would be easier.  The 10 commandments are not impossible to keep.  They simply boil down to respecting and honoring God and respecting one another.  The problem was not, and is not, with the Law.  The problem is that we are all born self-centered and selfish.  We want what we want when we want it!  Unfortunately, that doesn’t change when we get “saved.”  The objects and activities that we desire may change but it takes most of us a very long time to realize that sometimes it is better to do something for the common good or the good of someone else when they need it, than to do what I want to do when I want to do it.