The Rudder

My first year in College, I read a quote from Brooke Shields about morality. Her philosophy at that time was that if something felt right to her, then it must be right for her to do. I liked that idea! I could do whatever I wanted as long as it felt right to me. Deep inside, I knew this was faulty thinking from growing up in a churchy environ, but I turned to it again and again, making some really bad decisions because of it.



I can't live by my own compass and standards because they will continually change. God's standards never change and we find those standards in the Bible. By the time I read Brooke Shield's quote I had read through the Bible on my own. I had also heard scripture every week in church. I had even though I had uttered some prayers as a kid many years earlier.



The Bible tells me that I have to do what God's Word says, not just listen to it. And that was exactly where my disconnect was. I was listening to God's Word, wanting to know what it had to say, but I didn't want it to direct how I lived my life. I thought happiness would come from following my own desires. Instead, true happiness comes from studying God's Word and letting the Holy Spirit lead me in the right direction.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James%201:22&version=NLT