At a point in our lives, we make that big mistake, the one so big we not only believe the ground should open up and make room for us but we also believe that we can never make the same mistake ever again. We say once bitten twice shy, most times we do get bitten again on that very same spot. Oh yes, I have been there, bitten not once, but over and over again.
Imagine you were a little child once again, imagine you were running down a path. In a hurry so focused that you fail to see the signs warning you of the danger ahead. Maybe you do see one or two, but then you are a little child, you have no fear of the unknown and yes there is that deadly mixture of excitement and curiosity that has caught so many of us when young. An excitement and curiosity that lasts just long enough for you to fall into the traps. A child learns, learns quickly by events like that, learns not to go into such situations again. That is how we learn not to play with fire, put our hands in sockets or bad electrical appliances (that is for me). As kids, we learn to generally stay well clear of the things that hurt us. That is one side of the story.
As christians, especially young ones using me as a case study, there are times we mess up, mess up so badly that we ourselves feel God should roll us in his mouth and spit us out. We have our good days and we have our exceptionally bad ones. Having God's love, having Jesus as our mediator, we get back from the bad days. But then there is a difference between a physically young child and a young christian. Where a kid would not dare to tread after a fall on the last time out, where a young child would realize his limits, a young christian who has fallen along the same lines, would come back the next day believing that with more prayers, a little more fasting, a little more of right living and he WILL overcome. And we run the same path, over and over again, not realizing that the problem is not with the prayers, not with the fasting but it is with the very path I run. Reminds me of the passage
Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
I would change that verse and add this to it. It leads to death every single time, regardless of the amount of prayers, the amount of fasting or the number of hands that are joined with you to rebuke all the warning signs and traps set along the way.
1 Cor 10:12-13 says
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
The warning signs are there for a reason not to be rebuked, not to be prayed about but to provide a way out for you. I don't know where you are at the moment, I don't know if you have had warning signs along the way, signs that rather than take heed of, you decide to pray about. Does it feel like dejavu? Then perhaps you should get off that path now.
Beware of thinking that intercession means bringing our own personal sympathies and concerns into the presence of God, and then demanding that He do whatever we ask - Oswald Chambers
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