Will Over Emotions

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.  —Proverbs 14:12

I was involved in a fender bender a number of years ago. I was barely moving on an icy road as I approached a sharp right turn onto a main road. I prepared to stop on an upgrade and make the turn onto the highway when a young man turned off the main road cutting the turn short. Startled upon seeing me, he stopped on the road in front of me. Equally startled, I tapped the brake, my tires locked up, and I slowly slid straight into his car. I wasn’t even going that direction.

If the young man would have continued across my lane, we would not have crashed. If I would have simply continued on my way to the stop sign and turned right onto the main road, no paint mixing. Neither car was badly damaged. We played the insurance blame game and had both cars repaired. My biggest challenge was not the damaged car, nor the young man’s upset father interrogating me at my house, but my telephone interview with the insurance company.

Someone warned me that the first question of the insurance interview would be, “Were you wearing your seatbelt?” I was not. Although the Pennsylvania seatbelt law was enacted 1987, wearing a seatbelt just didn’t seem comfortable to me. It was easy to simply forget to put it on. I guess I didn’t feel like wearing it. I really wanted to tell the insurance company that I was wearing my seatbelt, but I was not. My dilemma was how could I not say that I was not wearing my seatbelt without lying. I felt such pressure to say I was doing the right thing when I was not. I was tempted to lie.

We often get into these kinds of predicaments when we allow our emotions and feelings to rule over our wills and minds. We do what we feel like doing rather than what we know is right. We make comments like, “It just felt right!” Unconsciously, we live by the motto, “If it feels good, do it.” Proverbs tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Have you ever given or received the advice, “Just follow your heart.”? Although it sounds so true (and would be if we were perfect reflections of Jesus Christ), this advice often leads us to make poor decisions, disobey God, and hurt ourselves and others.

What would our world and lives be like if God acted solely on emotion? What if God reacted with “sin rage” every time we fell short in the same way humans react with road rage when cut off by another driver? What if Jesus didn’t go to the Cross because He didn’t feel like it? What if He prayed in the garden, “Father, I just don’t think it’s going to feel good.”?

The scriptures tell us that Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Jesus “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). He prayed in the Garden, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). There is always a right thing to do. The next right thing to do might not be easy, and we might not feel like doing it, but it is always right to do the right thing, the righteous thing.

Some of you are facing dilemmas about what you would like to do and what you know is the right thing to do. There is a way that seems right to man; it leads to death and God will give you no support in that direction. There is always the right thing to do, and Jesus promises His presence and power to do that which is pleasing in God’s sight. Stop and pray; trust the Lord and do the right thing. You will never regret it or feel the need to lie about it.