Steve Farrar - Articles

Shortcuts in Scripture

Does the Bible have anything to say specifically about shortcuts?  You bet it does. In Psalm 19:13, David specifically asks God to protect him from this very dangerous kind of sin:

 Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins;
 Let them not rule over me.

 A presumptuous sin is a shortcut. A sin that “presumes” is one that willfully and knowingly defies God’s specific commands. The line has been clearly drawn, and yet you decide to cross it. You know it is wrong. But you presume on God and do it anyway. That is a presumptuous sin. It’s also a shortcut. And the danger with one shortcut is that it leads to another, and before you know it they “rule over” you. That’s why David asked God to keep presumptuous sins from ruling over him. You can quickly establish a pattern of taking shortcuts.

 Shortcuts are slippery trails. They always look good in the beginning, but they screw up your life in a hurry and lead to more problems than you could possibly imagine. They send you downhill very quickly and always switch-back on you.

So far, we have discovered that there are three trails and that each of them has a final destination.

• The Broad Trail leads to destruction.
• The Narrow Trail leads to life.
• The Shortcut always dumps you on the road to destruction.

—Steve Farrar

Steve Farrar is the author of ten books, including the
best-sellers Point Man and Finishing Strong.

Learn more at SteveFarrar.com

 

Shortcuts Never Work Out

If you’re over forty, you’ve gotten a grip on the fact that life isn’t forever. It’s very short, and it’s gone before we know it. David captured this thought so well in Psalm 39.

“Lord, make me to know my end
And what is the extent of my days;
Let me know how transient I am.
Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;
Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.
Surely every man walks about as a phantom;
Surely they make an uproar for nothing;
He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.” ( vv. 4-6)
 

To put it another way, those seventy or eighty years are going to melt away like morning fog.

At this very moment in your life, you’re following a trail. If you’re on the wrong trail, there’s still time to change direction. It’s a trail you have chosen. And when you boil it all down, you’ve got three trails to choose from. The broad trail. The narrow trail. And what is the third alternative?

It’s a shortcut—sort of a phantom trail that always promises more than it can deliver. There’s always one thing you can count on with a shortcut. Sooner or later, it always merges with the trail to destruction.

And you don’t want to go there.

—Steve Farrar

Steve Farrar is the author of ten books, including the
best-sellers Point Man and Finishing Strong.

Learn more at SteveFarrar.com