ARE YOU GUILTY OF ALTERING GOD’S WORD TO FIT YOUR DESIRES?

SCRIPTURE:
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.  
(Proverbs 14:12)

MEDITATION:
In His Word, 
God tells us everything we need to know about what is right in His eyes.
Regardless of what He says, 
man tries to rewrite His instructions to fit his own life style.

If God’s way causes an inconvenience or takes a person out of their 
comfort zone, then he or she starts modifying His Word to fit their desires, 
rather than adjusting their life to fit His directions. 
Does that really make sense?

Should we change anything 
that our omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Heavenly Father has ordained?
If we change anything, we are not only showing a lack of faith in God, 
but we have decided that we know better than He does what we should do.

There are many problems when we do that, 
but here is a major issue to consider.
We can easily fall into a trap of redefining God’s definition of salvation.
That means we will look at salvation in our terms, and not His.
We also start assuming that His forgiveness is the same as that of man.
That is unequivocally not true!

God forgives us out of love, whenever we express our belief in His Son, 
Jesus and confess our sins (instead of trying to rationalize them).
Man’s forgiveness is often conditional, 
because we cannot get over being wronged by someone.

When we redefine salvation, we develop the idea of self-redemption.
In other words, God has it wrong and we have it right.
Man assumes that he must work at righteousness in order to save himself.
It is noble to be as righteous as we can, but our efforts will not save us.

No amount of work that we do can save us, 
because salvation is a free gift from God.
The best thing we can do is read God’s Word and accept it as truth.
Whenever we try to alter the scriptures to fit our desires, we create all kinds 
of problems for ourselves, and we risk missing out on an eternity with God.
Therefore do not be foolish, 
but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Ephesians 5:17)

ACTION:
Do you accept God’s Word as truth?
“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the 
smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.” 
(Matthew 5:18 (NLT)) 
Have you rationalized any of your actions (or inactions) 
in order to exonerate yourself from being guilty of disobeying God’s Word?

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, I believe ALL of your Word is truth. Forgive me 
if I am guilty of modifying anything in the scriptures to justify my 
actions or inactions. Rather than altering Your Word to fit my needs 
and wants, help me to alter my needs and wants to fit Your Word. 
Teach me about the dangers of changing anything in Your Word. I 
know that my attempts at living a good life are nothing compared to 
my Savior, Jesus Christ; but because of Him, I can come to You, 
knowing He has redeemed me.”