I knew someone that had bought a new home, and on their property there was an old privacy fence. They hired me to come take the old board’s down and replace them with new boards. I had a large part of the fence torn down when the neighbor came walking up to me. He asked what I was doing to his fence. You see, my friend didn’t understand that he didn’t own the fence. He was able to patch things up pretty easily with his neighbor, seeing as his neighbor was getting a new fence.
This reminded me of an old story of a crowd gathered in 2 fields. God and the devil showed up on opposite sides and started taking those with them that were on their side of the fence. One guy decided to beat the system and climbed up on the fence. Soon everyone left, but then the devil reappeared and told the guy to come with him. The guy responded that he never chose a side, to which the devil replied, “Don’t you know, I own the fence?”
Too often folks don’t want to choose a side, and instead they want to ride the fence when it comes to living for God. What they don’t realize is that they have chosen a side by riding the fence. You know what else fences have? Gates. If you are near the fence, you’ll eventually hang out near the gate. When you start hanging out near the gate you open the gateway to things in your life that don’t belong. Also it makes it that much easier to totally walk away from God because you’re near the gate.
Don’t ride the fence and don’t hang out near the gate. Let’s decide to live for God wholeheartedly today, and stay away from the fence.
Mark 12:29-30 ISV 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, 30 and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
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