There is a Way...

Dear Friends,

Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him…………”

As I meditate on the above scripture I have to begin to ask myself, am I operating in a way, that seems right to me, but is far from God's plan for my life. According to Psalms 139:16 “in your book were all written the days you appointed for me.” It reminds me of a story that I heard recently.

This is the Story of the Pot Roast.

I heard it like this……………

A young woman was hosting a dinner party for her friends and served a delicious pot roast. One of her friends enjoyed it so much that she asked for the recipe, and the young woman wrote it down for her. Upon looking over the recipe, her friend inquired, “Why do you cut both ends off the roast before it is prepared and put in the pan?” The young woman replied, “I don’t know, I cut the ends off because I learned this recipe from my mom and that is the way she had always done it.” Her friends question got the young woman thinking and so the next day she called her mom to ask her, “Mom, when we make pot roast, why do we cut off and discard the ends before we set it in the pan and season it?” Her mom quickly replied, “That is how your grandma always did it and I learned the recipe from her.” Now the young woman was really curious, so she called her elderly grandma and asked her the same question. “Grandma, I often make the pot roast recipe that I learned from mom and that she learned from you. Why do you cut the ends off the roast before you prepare it?” The grandmother thought for a while, since it had been years since she made the roast herself, and then replied, “I cut them off because the roast was always bigger than the pan I had back then. I had to cut the ends off to make it fit.”

My God!!!!! How many of us are doing things that we were shown by the important people (parents, uncles, aunts, teachers, friends etc) in our lives, but we’ve never took time to question why we do it? What behaviors, thoughts, and actions can we question that align with our way, but misalign with God’s original intent for us? What things have we possibly believed about ourselves that hold no merit, or truth? It is time out for the excuse that says, we have always done it this way, or have believed that way. We are choosing to no longer give ourselves permission to continue to believe that way.

For example, you may have been raised to wash the dishes, and then dry them by hand. While another person, may have been raised to load the dish washer. While another person was raised to wash the dishes before you cook, yet another waits until after you cook. Does that make you right over them? How many relationships have been damaged, because we have been doing things the way that "seemed" right to us? How many mental and emotional scars do we carry that were caused by "our" way of thinking? How many bad financial decisions have we made, because we are accustom to handling money in the ways shown to us by mere man?

Listen, this is not a place to feel guilty or condemned. We belong to Christ now, so there is no condemnation for us (see Romans 8:1). This is simply a place to dig deeper. If we can begin to recognize cultural things that we do, and cultural ways were have been taught to believe. We can rejoice in the fact that, God has made us in his image and his likeness (see Genesis 1:27). Hallelujah!!! God reveals truth, through saturating our hearts in His word, when we do we bind our minds to his mind. When we stay in a place of surrender before him, we begin to move like He moves, speak like He speaks, and live like He intended for us to live. This also means we love like He loves. I decree and declare that we will no longer follow what the way that seems right to us, but will surrender it to Holy Fire of Jesus Christ, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truths (see John 16:13).

Lord, we repent for doing things our own way, and believing man’s way over your ways. We choose to live kingdom both now and forever. In Jesus Name. Amen.

I Corinthians 11:1 AMPC,(made personal) “ Pattern yourselves after {follow my example}, as I imitate and follow Christ {the Messiah}.

I Peter 2:21 TPT, (made personal), “In fact, (Chanda(insert your name) you were called to live this way, because Christ also suffered in your place, leaving you his example for you to follow.

Choosing God’s Way,

Chanda Rose