A
reminder for today
But
they kept urging him until they shamed him into agreeing, and he finally said,
"All right, send them." So fifty men searched for three days but did
not find Elijah. (2 Kings 2:17)
I guess Elisha must have been sad in watching Elijah
taken. He knew that they would not find him, yet he allowed them to convince
him that they must look for Elijah. There are two things I think that made
Elisha agree to this in the end. One is that he was still emotional about the
loss of his master and that he was still uncertain of his place and second he
was pushed by the continuous nagging of these prophets from Jericho and he
might just wanted to be left in peace for a moment, so he agreed. Whichever the case,
I believe that similar things happen to us every day.
I love the phrase “The steam roller effect” where you are
pushed into a decision or a direction by someone that just takes control and
you have had no time to think. Then there is the occasional acceptance to feel
part of a group that you should not be part of or you change your ways to feel
that you fit in or that you are as cool as they are. Sadly I see this quite
often at our work. People will change their way of talking to match the people
they work with, for example: someone will suddenly swear a lot to fit in with
his colleagues. This also happens with substance abuse and how people are let astray,
because they seek the wrong acceptance or they allow others to bully them into
bad choices.
My dear friend, from my own experience I have found that
the best group to be part of is the group that follow Jesus. Trying to fit in
with the wrong crowd will only leave a void that you can never fill and scars
that the enemy will use to haunt you all your life unless you change sides and
join Jesus. To follow Jesus means that you will follow His voice and walk in
His ways. This means that you will not allow other to push you in making bad
choices or you will not be bullied into acceptance. And yes in some cases you
will be an outcast and you will not be as popular as the ones on the wrong
path, but one thing is sure, you will be popular with God and He is the one
that you should impress, not people.
Come with me today and stand your ground, do not be
pushed into a wrong choice or decision by people, but instead let God guide
your choices and let us follow His ways in His Word.
Have and awesome day dear friend of Jesus