The Road
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” … that sayin’s been around a lot longer than me and you … but have you ever just thought about what it means ? It implies that, thinking about doing something positive, but not following up on it with “action”, is the same, or sometimes worse than, NOT wanting to do anything positive. Pennye Jacobs Lewis can ask me to clean out the pool before the weekend … i can give her that stare as if she just lost her mind and say ,” OK. I’ll get ‘tuit’ tomorrow”… with no more intentions of tackling that task than if someone asked me to eat a raw oyster🤮. That would be a flat-out lie. But if i told her, “ OK baby. I’ll get on it this afternoon or tomorrow”, and i wind up lettin it slide until the next time she reminds me…that’s good intentions without positive actions…what hell’s paved with… because that’s what I’m gon’ be catchin’ by ignoring her wishes🥴. I believe we’ve all “been there, done that”, at least a time or two; amen ? I know I’m pitiful to follow up with some of the things I’ve promised…even if the action didn’t require an actual “promise”. Just say you relayed the need for prayer for a friend or family member, and i immediately said,” You got it. I’ll be praying for them every day”… but i stop within the first couple o’ days. I more’n likely didn’t stop out of a lack of concern…probably i just forgot because of the other le’m thousand things I’ve got on my mind. Still…i let that person down because i neglected to lift their need up to God. I can’t help but think of the words of James, Jesus’ brother , so long ago …” But someone will say,’ You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I’ll show you my faith by what I do.”( James 2:18 ) We can know the good we oughta do, but fail to respond positively…and nothing ever gets done…or… we can know the good we oughta do, and do it, and rejoice that we got er done ! On to the next project … the next good deed ! There’s people all around you / me that needs to know Jesus. Many of em are attending church services right t’ere by you. We can all agree with that fact…but if we’re not inviting em to worship with us…encouraging em to nail down their decision for Christ before it’s too late … praying for their salvation… then what good have we done ?!? How did our prompting by the Spirit result in a positive response or action ? It didn’t ! Therefore…that person says,” Nobody cares. I ain’t goin t church with a buncha hypocrites that dont practice what they preach.” And ol boy / ol girl dies one day, still separated from a relationship with Christ, and to hell they go … to burn eternally without being able to burn up ! Is that what you / we want for our kids and their spouses ? For our grandkids or their friends ? For our own mamas and daddies …our spouse ? Just as faith without works is useless and dead ( James 2:13 )… so is good intentions without positive action. We need to honor the commitments we make and glorify God every chance we get. I don’t wanna be the one that gets to the gates of heaven, standing in front of Jesus only to hear him say,” See ya…wouldn’t wanna be ya” ( Matthew 7:21-23 ) !