Bend Early Rather Than Breaking Late

For example, the straight road for Paul of Tarsus (later known as the Apostle Paul) was to become a Rabbi, hear the preaching and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ (Paul’s contemporary), come to faith in Jesus, become a disciple of Jesus early on and serve the Lord with the rest of his life.  This is a straight line.  However, Paul’s view of a straight line for his life was to become a Rabbi, hear the preaching and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, reject Jesus as the Son of God and then destroy the early Church (Acts 8:3).  We can easily see where Paul went off the straight and narrow road God had for his life.  

To remedy that error, God knocked Paul to the ground, blinded him (Act 9:1-9), and put him in 14 years of seminary (Galatians 2:1, https://john.do/st-paul-and-14-years-of-preparation/ ).  Those drastic moves got Paul back on God’s straight and narrow.

St. Paul and 14 Years of Preparation – John Saddington john.do I’m studying the Book of Acts and a number of Pauline Epistles this semester and I came upon a little fact about Paul and his work which floored me when I first …

The evangelist Jonah thought the straight road was to preach only to Jews and to curse to Hell all non-Jews.  His road was crooked. God’s straight road for Jonah was to realize that God is not the national God of Israel only, but the God of all who would honor Him.  To get Jonah on God’s straight and narrow path, Jonah had to pay for a trip he never got to take, God had to send a storm, have Jonah thrown overboard in rough seas, swallowed by a great fish, spit up on land, preach to Gentles and watch as those Gentiles cried to God for mercy and received it.    Jonah did not bend early out of his crooked path in order to stay on God’s straight path and he paid the price.  The abrupt bend almost broke Jonah because he waited a long time to move from his path to God’s path.

Staying on God’s straight path means we have to get off our own path when told to. It is not easy because our path seems right; it seems straight to us but it is not straight.  Be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Do not assume that your path is right.  Make life adjustments to stay on God’s straight path. No one does it perfectly.  Do the best you can and God will bless you for your efforts.  The longer we stay on our path, the more abrupt the movement from our path to God’s path and the more likely we will break.  Bend early. Do not take a chance on breaking late.  

How is it done?

1. Be sure you are a saved! ( https://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/the-study-of-god/why-study-god/what-must-i-do-to-be-saved )

2. Do your best to please Jesus with your life.

3. Get up every morning and pray, not my will today, God, but your will be done.

The Bible gives us several examples of those who bent early.  I sometimes tire of using poor King David’s sin with Bathsheba as an example of so much, however, the truth is obvious; David was a man after God’s heart not because he was perfect, but because he was quick to repent when God confronted him about sin.  Peter’s response to the sheet full of unclean animals is an example of bending early (Acts 10:11-28).  Short of stature but far of sight, Zacchaeus is a great example of bending early (Luke 9:1-10).  Other examples are the lad who donated his lunch (John 6), the man who cried “Jesus, have mercy on me,” (Luke 18:35f) — the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:23-34), the Roman centurion who recognized Jesus as the Son of God when Jesus died on the Cross (Acts 27:50-54), the entire recorded lives of John the Baptist, the prophets Isaiah, Elijah and Elisha and more. Others did it.  We can do it too. So, do it.  The longer the wait and delay the harder it is!