Jeff Adams

We are obsessed with short cuts, aren’t we? Well, at least I am! I’d love to have a single pill with no side effects to plop in my mouth every month that would cause me to drop about 15 pounds and still be able to eat whatever I want. I’d love to find a way to put a million bucks in my savings account without actually having to save much.

I know that the above short cuts are mere fantasy, but there never seems to be an abundance of people buying into short cuts with no thought of the consequences. Look at the great number of “get-rich-quick” schemes that separate gullible people from their life savings every day. People actually spend a lot of money for those miracle, quick loss diets that they know will never work.  Have you ever fallen for a short cut? I have!

While get-rich-quick, lose-weight-quick and other such short cuts seem to get a lot of press, we look for short cuts in other areas of life, too. Illicit sex is often nothing more than a short cut to intimacy that never fails to disappoint. Abuse of drugs and drink are thought by some to be short cuts to popularity or happiness. They work only for a few fleeting moments.

People also try to take short cuts to purpose, meaning, significance and spirituality. Those short cuts don’t work either.

Have you ever thought about the time Jesus was tempted by the Devil? He offered him three temptations if you recall. He tempted Jesus to turn rocks into bread to satisfy his hunger, to throw himself off the top of the temple to be caught by angels and thereby gain the recognition of the multitudes as the Son of God, and to gain the kingdoms of the world and all therein only by falling down and worshiping the Devil.

I have pointed out how those three temptations correspond to 1John 2:16 that breaks down all sin into wrongly seeking to fulfill sensual cravings, material desires and pride. Any sin in the Bible is going to fit one of those three broad categories. The Devil also worked his tempting powers on Eve by approaching her in all three of these areas. Once you catch the idea of these three basic areas of temptation, you will see them repeatedly throughout the Bible.

But, there is something else about all these temptations. They have one other very important feature in common – they are all shortcuts. Stop and think about that for just a minute. They are all shortcuts. All those things the Devil put in front of Jesus were his anyway! The temptation was to take a short cut and avoid the process of the Cross.

We seek instant gratification. God withholds no good thing from those that walk righteously (Psalm 84:11).  But, God gives us these good things through the process of growth he has planned.

Growth is the combination of grace, truth and time.

Tired of getting suckered into short cuts? Frustrated because you want to grow and keep bumping your head on the ceiling that doesn’t move?

Next Sunday the adventure begins. Glass Ceilings: Eliminating Barriers to Growth.