God uses his tough love
to steer us away from bad life choices.
Choices that can cause damage
to ourselves and possibly others.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Importantly, please read the introductory article, “God’s guidance” to this subsection of the website, “God’s guiding hand” before going on. That is if you have not done so already. It briefly describes the various methods of God’s guidance, available to us. And it discusses how they can assist us during life. That is if we decide to use them.
(To read about the ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of this website please click here.)
Now this article may be a ‘little harder to swallow’ than earlier ones in this subsection. I will say that I had already accepted Christian faith, and come to firmly believe in God, before finding that this guidance about bad life choices was ‘for real’. And, the Lord began to encourage me to clean up my life … which I now admit was needed to allow our relationship to fully grow.
Trust me, that guidance did become VERY real to me, that is within my long term evaluation of Christianity in action within my life. I come from a senior auditing background, although I do have a number of qualified clergy within my advisory team. Again, click here for info ‘about’ this website.)
2. BAD LIFE CHOICES
I suppose in some cases, people can need this kind of guidance from the Lord even in their early days of faith. Seriously ‘bad life choices’ can actually wreck anyone’s journey of faith at that stage. So, I ask all readers to be open to any efforts by God to change their ‘ways of life’. There will be a genuine, and probably obvious, reason for his efforts to bring about that change within us.
From my experiences in life, God’s methods for trying to steer us away from ‘bad life choices’ can actually offer strong evidence of his existence; his presence there in our lives. For example, God’s hints of disapproval at our seriously bad decision-making and wrongdoing – that can negatively affect ourselves, our relationship with him, and even harm others – will become ever more obvious as he tries to turn us away from them. Remember all this effort, on God’s part, relates to how much he loves each one of us!
With regard to bad life choices, we usually act poorly because of our selfishness or unhealthy desire for self-indulgence. Hmmm … “If the cap fits then wear it.” Yes, I have been guilty of that! So, no I’m not trying to ‘put myself on a pedestal’. And look, we can even be ‘hard-wired’ (because of our genes) to behave badly in a particular way. But we MUST still overcome it. God can even help us to do so if we ask him, as I will further explain later.
The article, “Rules, laws and commandments” relates to the best ways of life that God has ‘preset’ for us. And made them clear in the Bible. You should not be surprised to see that most are based on the concept of ‘love’ – love of God, love of our fellow human beings. And if we ignore those related Bible scriptures, then we are simply living ‘unfaithfully’.
3. GOD’S TOUGH LOVE
Look, God certainly knows us better than we even know ourselves. He will try very hard to keep us on the ‘straight and narrow’. That is to lead us away from those destructive ways that we may choose for ourselves. In other words, he will apply this ‘discipline’ to our lives so as to turn us around; to leave those damaging bad life choices behind. This is all about God’s ‘tough love’. It is genuinely based on a balance of love and discipline.
From the Old Testament:
Know then in your heart,
that as a man disciplines his son,
so the Lord your God disciplines you.
[Deuteronomy 8:5]
3.1 Guidance can become very firm
Warnings from God about these bad choices of ours, whilst normally starting out at a subtle level may eventually become painfully ‘obvious’. I admit that on occasions, his obvious ‘warning shots’ at me have really ‘rocked my socks’. I mean these were serious warnings of ‘DO NOT go down that path!’
Sometimes too, I must add, these warnings from him in this area of life can even be embarrassing (as he possibly tries to shame us out of them). That is, he may highlight our bad behaviour to other folk who we know. Yes, I have had that happen to me, and I witnessed it happening to a close Christian friend as well. These are truly ‘gringe-worthy’ times for us I assure you!
3.2 Clear and real lessons
Now, at this point of the article though, is it all starting to look a bit hard for you to accept? I certainly know it might have for me, when I was starting out on my road to faith. But it really can become very clear in no time at all, once your mind opens to the possibility of God’s reality within your life.
But, I emphasise that his ‘warnings about’, or ‘discipline for’, behaviour related to bad life choices are easier to recognise than in the case of say God’s everyday ‘leadings’. And all the more so if, and when, we are about to ignore ‘earlier’ guidance he may have given us about that same type of bad behaviour.
You know, he has to make them obvious, if they are going to stop us!
3.3 Guilt and forgiveness
Yes, he will make our failures clear. And we can feel serious guilt as a result, that is as committed Christians. The whole issue can in fact come to ‘eat away’ at us.
We ‘sinners’, suffering as a result in these circumstances, really only have one choice left. And it has the best outcome for everyone concerned!
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night
your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord” –
and you forgave my sin.
[Psalm 32: 3-5]
In simple words, when you know you’ve failed God and yourself, then ‘fess up’ and he will forgive you. Then you can get ‘back on track’ in your life, and feel relaxed about it.
3.4 It is our choice
Bear in mind though, there is a limit to God’s attempts to put us on the ‘straight and narrow’ within our lives. God does not normally force himself upon us. And when the wrong things in life become just too much of an obsession for us, he may well just draw away from our lives.
In other words God respects our right to ignore him, and possibly even destroy our relationship with him, at our own peril of course. And as I have hinted, I have recognised that I was headed in that direction on a couple of occasions during my own faith journey.
Remember even then, after making these bad decisions and suffering from the results, he will normally take us ‘back into the fold’ if we ask for forgiveness and ‘change our ways’.
He is always ready to assist us too, at any stage, if we ask him through our faith to actually help us to change our ways. That is to “give us strength” to do so. We can never ask him for help too often, I might add! Just see the article, “God during hard times” if you like.
4. MY OWN EXAMPLES
I can give you some idea of the Lord’s actions towards me in relation to a couple of examples, of the same type of wrongdoing, in my life. And I admit upfront my bad behaviour had the ability to negatively impact both my relationship with God and other people.
I offer my examples with the hope that they may help guide you in similar situations.
4.1 His first ‘obvious’ warning
I had evaluated, or ‘thought through’, the effect of God’s past ‘leadings’ in my life. I knew exactly how they worked to my benefit. And he used that previous experience (i.e. how leadings do work) to make the point very clear about a ‘bad life choice’ of mine.
In relation to the first case of an obvious warning (I hadn’t taken notice of his gentler ‘hints’ in the past), his action was fairly harsh. It was indeed a very unlikely event and costly to me; a standout. It had come after my wrongful behaviour, like just minutes later. Of course the combination of odds, relating to seriousness and timing, meant I immediately understood that I should not ‘try it on’ again!
And it stopped me even considering that behaviour again for many, many years.
4.2 His very clear reminder
Yet, in my human weakness, I did eventually come to plan to do it yet again. This time around, a very serious threat suddenly arose to hang over my head. And, based on past experience and its result, I was virtually certain that God was making his disapproval very clear again.
The threat continued for days, as my plan moved towards acting wrongly. And God’s “hand was heavy on me” as the Psalmist wrote. I knew full well that he was disappointed in me. Yes I was looking forward to the brief reward of my wrongdoing; self indulgence. But at the same time I was feeling both guilty and nervous about that threat. Virtually at the last moment, I turned my back on where I had been headed, closing in on that bad choice.
In other words, the threat of both the ‘consequences’ hanging over me, and damaging my relationship with the Lord, were just not worth it to my thinking. My good sense had actually won. And I admitted my weakness to God.
‘Mind-blowing’ really – like within a minute after my positive decision – I found that I was ‘in the clear’. That severe threat, which had painfully hung over me for days, totally disappeared ‘just like that’ after my change of heart! Yes, I had been forgiven.
You know what? … I do not believe that temptation will ever resurface again! And so many years have since past to justify that statement.
5. CONCLUSION
God is not to be seen as cruel or harsh in these actions of his. No … again … he does it because he loves each one of us! He wants us all to have meaningful lives and a deep relationship with him. And he doesn’t want us lost in some ‘mire’ that we cannot dig ourselves out of. Nor does he want us physically, emotionally or even spiritually harming his other ‘children’.
If we do get ‘lost’ in life, then the possibility of an effective relationship with God is very limited indeed. The underlying cause of the problem can even dominate our thinking; our very identity, and override our thoughts for others and the Lord, often making us lost even to ourselves. And that means the most important things that God wants of us are at serious risk.
In circumstances where we do not ‘heed’ his warnings, we can suffer the full consequences of those decisions within our lives. But, while there is life there is hope (as the saying goes). Our Lord will normally use our mistakes to advantage for us when we re-join our true path of faith. He will also assist us to ‘dig ourselves out’ of any hole we may have placed ourselves in … IF we just ask for his help. Again, please see the article, “God during hard times“.
Let us now move on to the next article, “Asking for God’s guidance”. This is where we begin to deliberately engage with God during our decision making.