Short Cuts Lead to Long Cuts

Here is a beautiful illustration that I trust will encourage us all. I remember seeing a picture of a tree growing out of the side of a rocky cliff.  The artist  conveyed the scene of a terrible storm, with cyclonic-force winds.  The tree was almost doubled over, but it was able to resist the power of the storm because its roots had burrowed deep into the mountainous cracks.

What a beautiful illustration for the Christian life: when our lives are deeply rooted in the power and love of Jesus Christ, we will be able to withstand the various storms (illnesses, disappointments, failures etc) that He allows to cross our paths, to know that through it all, our gracious Lord is bringing about greater love for, and trust in Him. Yes, with Christ we have nothing to fear!

The key of course is to trust and love our Saviour. I don’t know about you, but I’m forever looking for short cuts.  Now usually that’s OK, but sometimes our so called short-cuts, end up a long-cut!  The other day I was caught up in a traffic snarl (this now seems to be a regular occurrence in Brisbane!), and being impatient (and late for a meeting!)  I turned off on a side road, only to find everybody else had the same idea.  And not only that, but the so-called short-cut was blocked because of road works!  So I had to turn round and join the traffic snarl once again.  The short-cut turned out to be a long-cut!

We try and do the same in our Christian walk.  Because we are busy (or don’t think it is important), we short-cut our spiritual journey by skipping Bible readings, shortening our prayer times and even neglecting to worship with the Lord’s people.  However, this ends up being a long-cut.  We miss out on the peace of Christ, we easily give in to temptation, we are not able to witness etc.  We become miserable and even mad at ourselves.

And so we cry out to our loving Saviour for help, and gently and graciously He brings us back to where we left off originally. He then leads us along the right path of  love, commitment, the study of God’s Word, prayer, obedience, worship - and again takes first place in our lives.  We look back and see how foolish we were, and with thanksgiving, determine to follow our Saviour once again. 

Once more we commit ourselves to trusting and following Him, and so weather the storms of life - just like that tree - because we are deeply rooted in the Rock of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ.  With Christian love,

 

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