Isa. 63:17

17 O LORD [Yahovah], why hast thou made us to err [ta`ah] from thy ways [derek], and hardened [qashach] our heart [leb] from thy fear [yir'ah]? Return [shuwb] for thy servants [`ebed]' sake, the tribes [shebet] of thine inheritance [nachalah]. KJV-Interlinear

17 Why, O LORD, dost Thou cause us to stray from Thy ways, And harden our heart from fearing Thee? Return for the sake of Thy servants, the tribes of Thy heritage. NASB

With some impudence, some charge that God was the author of sin and that God was the root cause of man s fall.

However, the questions here arise, How does man stray? How does man stiffen his heart? How does man come to disregard God? How does man come to lose his fear of God?

These questions are rhetorical, for to the wise, the answers are obvious. However, to the na ve, these questions are the tip of their self-centered list of excuses.

How can we be to blame for our own thoughts, motives, and actions?

Then, these questions are followed by the pleas for Gods return, in time, to help those who have been faithful, and who are in need of His help.

Man strays away from God because he does not see the importance, or the truth of Gods Word. God promises us all blessings, and prosperity, and happiness, but humanity tends to disregard Gods promises, in favor for something more agreeable to his sin nature.

In ignoring God, a person will pursue the carnal side of life.

The soul is a hungry sponge. It seeks out, it thirsts for information, and experiences, and fulfillment. With the power of man s senses, a person will have a natural tendency to follow those urges or lusts.

Man wants power, authority, sensual fulfillment, pleasures, money, wealth, security, and so forth. With the world beckoning all around, the sin nature has powerful drives, setting up powerful distractions.

But, man is more than animal instincts. Man can reason, too. So man knows that there is more to life than just these few years that we will spend on this planet. Thus the first awareness of God, enters into man s thoughts.

God sees this awareness and provides information about Himself. Man can listen to this information, or man can ignore it.

Those who want to know more will either believe or not. Those who believe will want to know even more or they won t. Those who want to know more, will either get with a daily study routine or they won t.

All of these steps into and through the spiritual life are a matter of man s own volition. God only provides the means and the information. Man s own stubbornness, or lack of it, will determine his own fate.

Man has only four possible fates. He will either ignore God altogether, and go to the Lake of Fire, or man will accept God but ignore anything further in his spiritual life, thus going to heaven but without spiritual growth, or man can advance partially in varying degrees in his spiritual life, or man can go all out and advance to spiritual maturity.

The first person goes to the Lake of Fire as mentioned. The last three will all go to heaven but they will be the recipients of varying levels of eternal blessings. Likewise, in this life, the last three will receive varying degrees of disciplines or blessings as are appropriate to their spiritual activity.

What causes man s straying from God? Man s own negative attitude. What causes hardness of heart? Man s own stubbornness and resistance to God.

What brings God back into the daily life of the individual? Again, man s attitude, which is now a positive one. What brings the highest degree of activity of God into ones daily life? Man s advancement to spiritual maturity.

Now is the time to post a prayer.