Easy Isn’t The New Good

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I will be the first to admit that I wish life came with an easy button. I wish that I had a button in my purse that I could pull out anytime life got too hard for me to handle. However, when I take a moment to really think about it, I begin to realize that with an easy button I would not need God.

Over the last several weeks, I have felt myself slipping farther and farther away from God. This is not something that I want to admit to you, but I believe in being honest and genuine as I blog. Just a few months ago I felt so close to the Lord, but recently I have not been setting aside time to read my Bible or spend time in prayer.

Why have I been slipping? Lots of reasons, however I think the biggest factor has been that I have simply chosen to do what is easy. I am tired and have allowed myself to sleep through my quiet time. I have been so focused on myself and what I think about a situation that I have not taken the time to ask God what He wants me to do or say. I have taken my eyes off of my Lord and focused them on myself.

Last week in Sunday school, our teacher, Ms. Janet, taught a lesson on how easy it is to slip out of an intimate relationship with God and back into our old sinful habits. She said that it is the little choices and decisions that will cause us to grow closer to God or slip farther away. I felt like this Sunday school lesson had been written just for me. In a lot of small ways I have chosen what I want instead of choosing God. However, when you add up all of those small decisions, you end up farther away from God then you even wanted to be in the first place.

So, I am trying to fight against choosing what is easy. All week, I have been getting up early to spend time reading my Bible and in prayer. Is it easy? No, but I am doing it anyway, because I do not want to slip any farther away from God than I already have.

I don’t know where you are at with the Lord; maybe you’ve been slipping or backslidden too. What is it going to take for you to begin to make you relationship with God a priority again?

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Easy Isn’t the New Good
January 26, 2012
Lysa TerKeurst

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 (NIV 1984)

It’s good to invest wisely in my relationships. It’s easy to simply coast.

It’s good to go the speed limit. It’s easy to speed a little.

It’s good to make a healthy choice. It’s easy to grab junk.

It’s good to read my Bible. It’s easy to check my phone for texts and emails first.

It’s good to think about others. It’s easy to think about myself.

Several years ago I had a friend who decided to leave her husband for another man. Things were easier with this other man. The feelings were giddy. The fights were few. And they didn’t have years of issues that needed to be dealt with.

So she went with what felt easy over what was good. She divorced. She remarried. She started over with what seemed so much easier.

After all, she’d been slipping into the pattern of easy for years. When we set our heart on the pattern of choosing easy over good in the little things, we run the risk of using the same justifications with the bigger things.

I’m not saying if I don’t read my Bible today, I’m headed for divorce court tomorrow. But setting a pattern of choosing easy over good in my life is a slippery slope.

Easy isn’t the new good.

Just because the world waves a big banner that we deserve easy… do what feels easy… why stress yourself when there’s an easier way… doesn’t mean it’s good.

Eventually, my friend didn’t feel like her new man was so easy. The feelings weren’t so giddy. The fights were many. And over the years they too developed a whole host of issues.

One day she came home and her second husband was gone. He found it easy to leave.

Like the old cliché says, “Easy come, easy go.”

I think about this and I’m challenged. Where are little compromises sneaking into my life? Where am I establishing a pattern of choosing what is easy over what is good? And does it really matter?

I think it does.

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
I so desire this “good” way. To treat others fairly. To love those in my life faithfully. And to live the way God wants me to live- choosing good over easy.

Dear Lord, please help me to see today the times where I may choose the easy way over the good way. My desire is to please You in all that I do. Help me to establish healthy patterns of living according to Your purpose. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.