What causes people to fall away from the path? There are three main reasons:
- The power of the world
- How we were raised
- Our own weak nature
1. The Power of the World
The world is the great test. The test is whether or not you will love it more than God. If you do, you fall into bondage as to sow to the world is to sow to time, not eternity. If you pursue the world, you will have hope and despair to contend with. When things are going our way, we have hope and feel happy but when things take a turn for the worse, we fall into despair. This is the futile game which awaits those who pursue happiness and invest their time trying to attain power in the world.
2. How We Were Raised
Did your parents talk about God? Did they teach you about what you are in the scheme of things? Most parents let society raise their children and never guide them, never give instruction on the most important topic there is answered by the question, 'how shall I live?' If parents don't give guidance here, they are setting their children up for a huge fall as the try to gain satisfaction in the world. Parents who don't teach their children about God are leaving this up to world, and chances are more than good they will not come to it on their own, or until much later in life after they've suffered greatly.
3. Our Own Weak Nature
The will is weak. This is why the world is so seductive and why we choose it over God much of the time. We are unaware that we've fallen and have lost the way. We desire things the world shows us and this is all it takes to place objects over God. These temptations remain and we are tested constantly until we reach a tipping point - a time where God lives his life through us. When that occurs, no one can know, yet this is the goal. This is the path for those who dare to love God more than the world.
The path to God reveals ourselves to us. It reveals how, even knowing full well that God is the better choice, we choose things of the world first. We worship the world and lose God. We exile ourselves and wonder why. Over and over, we fall. And over and over, we get back on the path to God until the day comes when finally, we fall no more.
Yours in peace,
Edward Weiss
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