Building up believers and the New Testament church

God's Purpose for You

The High Cost of Rejecting the Purpose of God

When we go back and look at the message of Jesus, it will soon come to our attention that time and time again He spoke the words, "Follow Me." Perhaps there are no words that sum up His total message better than these two. Following has a beginning, but it also implies a continuing. We dare not stop at any point, even if it seems to us that the cost is too great. It cost God everything to purchase us back for Himself, and it will cost you also when you set your heart to follow Him. He has not promised an easy road, but He has promised strength for every day, and He will not make any demands upon you that you cannot obey.

If we turn from the pathway of God to our own desires again, it can only bring the judgment and discipline of God. He will first bring discipline to try to turn our hearts back to the straight and narrow way (Hebrews 12:7-11). God will bring everything into our lives that He can, short of death, to turn us from our own ways back to His way. He loves us, and because He loves us, He disciplines us. It is an evidence that He has not given up on us, but rather that He still cares for us. Our part is to recognize that discipline quickly, and repent. God deals with us in mercy, but we must not be slow to respond.

If we refuse to respond to the discipline of God, we leave God with no other choice in the final day but eternal judgment, and this is the lake of fire. This may not be pleasant to think about, but we must consider the consequences of turning from God at any point in our lives. There is a final price to pay. God does not delight in casting a man into this lake of fire, as we have seen earlier, but His nature of complete justice requires that He do so. He has made every provision, but if we continue to reject His provision, we bring the wrath of God upon ourselves.

Perhaps all of this makes you feel too weak, and you say you can never make it. God does not ask you to make the journey all at once. We have pointed out the pathway to help you see where God is leading you, but all He asks is that you take one step at a time. Every journey is completed in that way. Wherever you are in God at this time, make the next step. You will find God is enabling you to make it. He is not against you, but for you. You must come God's way, however, as there is no other way. It is a narrow way, but it is also a straight way. It is the only way of life--all other roads lead to death. Heed the word which God has brought to your heart, and take a step in God. You will never be the same again.

"See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven" (Hebrews 12:25).