Stepping to Destruction

Imagine for a moment that you’re on a diet, and you’ve decided to go on a walk every morning for exercise. You settle on a route that takes you right past your favorite doughnut shop just when they’re making them fresh. You know it’s a mistake to go that way, but you do it anyway. As you walk by the doughnut shop, congratulating yourself for exercising, you glance in the window. Soon you’re standing at the window. And before you know it, you’re sitting inside—not at a table but in a vat of raw dough.

That’s how sin works. Psalms 1:1 sums it up perfectly: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful” (NKJV). Notice the progression. First there is walking, then comes standing, and finally it’s sitting.

Contrast that with the next verse: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (verse 2 NKJV).

To paraphrase it, he loves to read the Bible. He loves to hear the Bible preached. He loves to hear songs with verses from the Bible. He loves the Word of God and meditates on it, which means that he thinks about it. He ponders it. He considers it day and night.

If you want to be a blessed, or happy, person, then you will need to separate yourself from some things and some people and in exchange surround yourself with other things and other people. The problem is the believer does not pull the nonbeliever up; the nonbeliever usually pulls the believer down.

If you want to live a godly life, then you will need to separate yourself from ungodly influences.