Isn’t it amazing how you can be driving down the road with your children and pass by that renowned burger shop and immediately you begin singing, “have it your way”? Those of us that are older know the catchy jingle from the past so well that we can sing most of the song without a hitch. My wife and I seemed to swing through the drive through so often that we have even become friends with our local cashier attendant to the point of swamping family stories. But the reality is that the phrase “you can have it your way” is only in the world of burgers at best. Yet we have taken that same philosophy and imbedded it in our everyday lifestyle, which thinks, “we deserve it the way we want it”. We have become a society that expects to get whatever we want even if it takes having a baby tantrum.

Jesus said to Thomas in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Yet many people and even some so called believers have a difficult time believing that Jesus is the way! Whether they admit it or

We have allowed the blessing of freedom to become a curse of self-will in our midst.     (tweet)

not their actions confirm that they don’t think Jesus is the only way. To them He might be “a way” but not “thee way”. But we can’t allow this deception to creep into the church.

Jesus dealt with this dilemma by speaking to His disciples when He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me”. (Matt 16:24) As a Christian we must allow Gods ways to over ride our ways. As followers of Jesus we are to surrender our way for His way. Paul echoes this when he says in 1 Cor 15:31 “I die daily”. Paul lets us know that we must bring our carnal or fleshly man under subjection to God’s ways. We are a society of strong opinionated people that want their own way all the time.

This attitude is being played out in the media for all to see, which says, “I don’t have to stand for the Pledge” and “I can do what I want to”. This mindset of wanting everything their way is starting to corrupt the very fabric of our nation and the church. Think about it? The very law that has made America great is now being used to disrespect our nation. We have allowed the blessing of freedom to become a curse of self-will in our midst. In Isa 55:8-9 God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways”. We have a choice to surrender to the leadership of Christ or to become self-absorbed and live our own way.

We can see this same attitude at work in Gen 11, where we read the story of the tower of Babel. Like us, they wanted the blessing of heaven but only if they could have it their way. In chapter 9, God tells them to go through the earth and replenish it. But then we see in verse 3 that it says that the people of the earth came to the valley of Shinar and settled there. Then the people said, “let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves”. It is just like today, they wanted the benefit of heaven, but wanted it their own way.